Christian agencies working in Pakistan are welcoming a draft Bill now before the Parliament in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. The Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act is designed to prevent child marriages by raising the legal age for marriage for both boys and girls to 18 years.
Previously the age for girls was just six-teen. Its broader significance, if enacted, is that it should make it harder for Muslims to abduct and forcibly marry Christian girls, before then converting them to Islam.
Juliet Chowdhry of the British Asian Christian Association said: ‘Raising the female marriage age to 18 in Pakistan would provide crucial protection for all women. But Christian women are particularly vulnerable to forced conversion and marriage:
