Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has signed the Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2025 into law, amending the law to criminalise child marriage in the Federal Capital of Islamabad. Campaigners are celebrating victory; religious voices have branded it ‘un-Islamic’. Facilitating a child under 18 into marriage now carries a prison term of up to seven years in Pakistan’s capital city.
Every year in Pakistan, around 1,000 girls from religious minorities are abducted and forced into marriage and conversion. The law covers 2.3 million residents of Islamabad. 230 million other citizens are not covered by the change.
‘Milestone’
“This bill sends a powerful message,” Senator Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan People’s Party told the media. “It’s a very important signal to the country, to our development partners, and to women, that their rights are protected at the top.”
Marital age in the city of Islamabad is now 18 for all. Sex with a child within marriage is now statutory rape. Parents, clerics, and registrars assisting child marriage may face jail.
Widely hailed as a ‘moment of change’ and ‘historic step’, campaigners note it is the third attempt for this Bill to be passed.
It comes amid a continuing crisis of forced child marriages targeting religious minorities in Pakistan.
‘Un-Islamic’, ‘Unacceptable’, ‘Unbearable’
The Bill’s passage triggered a fierce backlash from some quarters, including the conservative Sunni Muslim Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl party, who called it “unacceptable and unbearable,” insisting “puberty should mark the age a girl can be married.”
“We should not be forcing the age of child marriage,’ politician Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said, in comments reported by the UK’s Guardian newspaper. “Parents should decide that, and children should consent to it.”
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a constitutional advisory body, issued a statement insisting parts of the bill “do not align with Islamic injunctions.”
“The bill introduced by Madam Sharmila Faruqi…has been declared un-Islamic,” the CII said, speaking through its media wing in Islamabad.
A CII member, Maulan Jalaludin, stated: “This bill is not only against the norms of sharia but also contrary to the values of our society.”
The prominent Islamic scholar, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl party, announced nationwide protest rallies against the bill. On Wednesday, a private legal action was launched against Pakistan’s government, describing the bill as ‘repugnant to sharia.’
Web of Collusion
Experts believe around 1,000 girls of Christian and Hindu identity are abducted and forced into marriage and religious conversion in Pakistan every year.
Religious minorities, particularly poor Christian communities, are targeted for female abductions, and parents describe a web of official silence and complicity as they try to find lost children.
Cases such as that of 14-year-old Huma Younus, which the authorities refused to investigate, or 14-year-old, Myra Shehbaz, whose case reached court, but who was ordered back into her abductor’s custody—bear this out.
The case of 12-year-old Farah Shaheen, who was held shackled in an animal pen and raped, and 13-year-old Arzoo Raja, whose abductor submitted falsified conversion documents, were marked by judicial delays and prosecution failures—a picture repeated in hundreds of cases investigated by the Jubilee Campaign.
The scale of Pakistan’s child sexual exploitation problem is causing experts to question whether the change in Islamabad’s law represents real change, and whether it can even be implemented.
“Time will tell”
“History shows us that legal frameworks alone are insufficient protection for Pakistan’s Christian minority,” notes Thomas Muller, Open Doors Persecution Analyst.
“While this legislation does represent some progress, fierce religious opposition is already being voiced—signalling broader resistance to minority rights. So, the proof will be in how this is implemented.”
“Courageous politicians or judges may start to bring about change, but it may happen that they have to go into hiding as they are threatened by extremists.
Time will tell.”
May Pakistan's Christian minority (including girls and women) know they are beloved, valued, and destined for futures of hope.
*Name changed for security purposes
please pray
- Ask God to protect the precious girls of Pakistan from abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion. Pray for God to strengthen them as they go to school, as they come home to rest, and as they go out to play.
- Pray their families are strengthened with courage to protect and defend them. Ask God to give authorities the wisdom to prosecute these crimes and hearts turned toward justice.
- Pray for God to transform those who harm children, convicting their hearts and leading them into repentance.
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