The young woman had travelled from the western province of Kurdistan to see relatives in the capital Tehran.
According to the Iranian police, Mahsa did not follow the rules, which legally require women in Iran to wear a hijab.
Independent Iranian media outlet Iranwire reported police took Mahsa off the street earlier that night before she was allegedly beaten up at a station, where many women were held, on Vozara Avenue.
Citing eyewitnesses, other media reports, meanwhile, claimed that Mahsa was arrested and beaten inside the morality police van while being taken away to a detention centre.
The young woman's brother, Kiarash Amini, told Iranwire that he was with Mahsa when she was abducted after a morality patrol van blocked their way before officers grabbed Mahsa and forced her inside the vehicle.
The young man alleged the morality police, known as Gasht-e Ershad, told him that they would release Mahsa within an hour after a so-called "re-education class" for "improper hijab", but he heard screaming when he got to the building.
Kiarash alleged some of the detained women fled, and confirmed his worth fears.
"Every one of them said somebody inside had been killed," he is quoted as saying.
"I showed Mahsa’s picture to the women. One of them said Mahsa was next to her when it happened.
“I was shocked, and terrified. I asked one of the soldiers what had happened. He said ‘One of our own soldiers has been injured.’ He was lying. I didn’t believe him. It was Mahsa in that ambulance. I ran until I reached Kasra Hospital.”
Doctors allegedly told Kiarash that his sister had suffered a stroke or a heart attack.
It was later revealed that the doctors said Mahsa's "brain is no longer conscious". She died on Friday.
Police in Iran's capital have reportedly denied any wrongdoings and said Mahsa was take to the station for "justification and education", but that the young woman had then "suddenly suffered a heart problem."
This assertion has been rejected by human rights activists.
Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa office reacted: "The circumstances leading to the suspicious death in custody of 22-year-old young woman Mahsa Amini, which include allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, must be criminally investigated."
Kiarash told Iranwire he went to a courthouse to file a complaint.
"I will pursue it. But you know how the system works. They gave me a letter and told me to go to the headquarters in Vozara Avenue to register my complaint there. It’s like asking my father to name the murderer if I killed someone in our house.
“But I won’t allow this to end in silence. I will tell everyone in Iran what happened.” [...]
Protests broke out in western Iran at the funeral of a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died after being in detention by morality police enforcing strict hijab rules on Saturday, September 17.
Women removed their hijab to protest against the death of the young woman in detention. As security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters, the women chanted "death to the dictator!" Women of Iran-Saghez removed their headscarves in protest against the murder of Mahsa Amini 22 Yr old woman by hijab police and chanting: death to dictator!
Removing hijab is a punishable crime in Iran. We call on women and men around the world to show solidarity. #_ pic.twitter.com/ActEYqOr1Q — Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) [url=
Women of Iran-Saghez removed their headscarves in protest against the murder of Mahsa Amini 22 Yr old woman by hijab police and chanting:
The death of the 22-year-old Iranian woman in detention by morality police sparked protest by several Iranians who took to the street to protest. Some even protest on social media platforms.
An Iranian journalist tweeted, “Removing hijab is a punishable crime in Iran. We call on women and men around the world to show solidarity.” Mahsa Amini was detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations.
Protesters even took down a banner of Qasem Soleimani (the dead commander of IRGC Quds force) while protesting.
In the past few months, Iranian rights activists have urged women to publicly remove their veils, a gesture that would risk their arrest for defying the Islamic dress code as the country's hardline rulers crack down harder on "immoral behaviour".
Videos posted on social media have shown cases of what appeared to be heavy-handed action by morality police units against women who had removed their hijab.
Authorities launched probes into the death of Mahsa Amini following a demand by President Ebrahim Raisi, state media reported. Police said the 22-year-old was taken ill as she waited together with other detained women at a morality police station.
"Since her transfer to the vehicle and also at the location (station), there was no physical encounter with her," a police statement said, rejecting allegations on social media that Amini was likely beaten.
Follow Up: Iranian security forces directly shoot at protesters in the city of Saqqez following the burial of Mahsa Amini
Thank you brother. Unfortunately these things are not being thought in schools, infact some people have been threatening me for saying the truth. Some have blocked my number on WhatsApp and unfriend me on Facebook.
The truth will always prevail.
Whenever their religion is challenged, they have no intellectual response so they resort to violence. I'm not surprised some are threatening you for even showing them that they are supporting the religion that was used to justify their enslavement.
Unlike the Europeans, the Arabs never apologize for their atrocities. They still mock blacks as abeed (slave). Plenty of Europeans fought on the blacks side to end slavery, many lost their lives. One of many reasons I don't support anti-white racism. The Arabs on the other hand are still systematically discriminating against black people. Do you know that many blacks are indigenous to Arab countries, yet they have no representation in government?
You will see them in Europe and the US screaming racism at everything, but get angry when same is said against the Arabs who enslaved and killed more blacks than the Europeans.
The Arabian slave trade started earlier and lasted later than the European slave trade. It was more brutal. In fact the European themselves were victims of Arabian enslavement. It was the enslavement that later lead to the creation of the crusaders. More blacks died as a result of their enslavement in the hands of the Arabs than were ever enslaved by the European. And unlike the Arabs who could justified their slave trade with islam, the European couldn't justified their slave trade with Christianity which was the reason it ended earlier. In fact, the first man to be executed for treason in the US was a White man called John Brown. He was executed for leading a rebellion against slavery. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)
The founder of Islam himself killed, bought, traded, and raped black people. They killed black people so much that when the European came to sub-sahara africa they said the total black population couldn't have been more than 30 Million. They raped black people so much which is the reason black people living close to the middle east today look arab. They labelled black women as symbol of diseases, and said the devil looked like a black man.
What baffle me is that today we have a large population of black people joyfully salivating at the thought of the man whose action and dangerous ideology lead almost to the extinction of the black race. They even call him "the best example of mankind." They are even ready to kill and maim their fellow black on behalf of said man-- for example: Deborah Samuel.
Watch the video below if you want a little glimpse into the enslavement of blacks by the Arabs. The video doesn't capture all the atrocity the islamic arabs committed-- not even a fraction. In the video, you will see how black women are forced to walk around naked. You'll see black children that clearly looked half-Arab-- those are products of rape. You will see how black people are stripped naked and sold off like we are animals. More importantly, you will see white people going into Arabia to pressure their monarch to disband slavery. Remember that next time they want you to hate all white people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds2kliM2Yb4&list=LL&index=38 Here is the video. If you are using YouTube app instead, then search for: Slave Market In Arabia (1964) It was taken in 1964. Fours years after Nigeria got its independence. Four years after the civil right movement in USA had taken off. Yet, the black were still being sold in Arabia. Keep in mind that Islamic arabian's slavery came much earlier than the whites', yet it "ended" later. I put ended in quote because the enslavement of black didn't end even until the eighties, they simple went underground. Yet, in spite of this, some black people still bow their head toward Arabia moon god. God is every where but they must bow toward Arabia before he can answer their prayers-- isn't that brilliant?
In the video you will see the white men who went to meet the Arabian officials to discuss ending slavery in Arabia. In the video you will see how they forced black women to walk around naked in public- such a disgrace. You will see how they sell black people like we are animals. If you look closely at the video, you will see some little children who look half-black and half-Arab: those are the children that came from rapes. Many of these children have different fathers but same mother because the kidnapping and raping of black women was legal and rampant.
It took the effort of the white men to put a stop to these atrocities being committed on black people.
The shameful treatment of black people by Arabian savages: The women were forced to walk around naked, sexually harrased, and raped. They were forced to serve their pervert "master" naked.
Aliuhah: I thought Slave trade was a western thing.
Omo Africa has really gone through lot
The Arabian slave trade started earlier and lasted later than the European slave trade. It was more brutal. In fact the European themselves were victims of Arabian enslavement. It was the enslavement that later lead to the creation of the crusaders. More blacks died as a result of their enslavement in the hands of the Arabs than were ever enslaved by the European. And unlike the Arabs who could justified their slave trade with islam, the European couldn't justified their slave trade with Christianity which was the reason it ended earlier. In fact, the first man to be executed for treason in the US was a White man called John Brown. He was executed for leading a rebellion against slavery. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)
The founder of Islam himself killed, bought, traded, and raped black people. They killed black people so much that when the European came to sub-sahara africa they said the total black population couldn't have been more than 30 Million. They raped black people so much which is the reason black people living close to the middle east today look arab. They labelled black women as symbol of diseases, and said the devil looked like a black man.
What baffle me is that today we have a large population of black people joyfully salivating at the thought of the man whose action and dangerous ideology lead almost to the extinction of the black race. They even call him "the best example of mankind." They are even ready to kill and maim their fellow black on behalf of said man-- for example: Deborah Samuel.
Watch the video below if you want a little glimpse into the enslavement of blacks by the Arabs. The video doesn't capture all the atrocity the islamic arabs committed-- not even a fraction. In the video, you will see how black women are forced to walk around naked. You'll see black children that clearly looked half-Arab-- those are products of rape. You will see how black people are stripped naked and sold off like we are animals. More importantly, you will see white people going into Arabia to pressure their monarch to disband slavery. Remember that next time they want you to hate all white people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds2kliM2Yb4&list=LL&index=38 Here is the video. If you are using YouTube app instead, then search for: Slave Market In Arabia (1964) It was taken in 1964. Fours years after Nigeria got its independence. Four years after the civil right movement in USA had taken off. Yet, the black were still being sold in Arabia. Keep in mind that Islamic arabian's slavery came much earlier than the whites', yet it "ended" later. I put ended in quote because the enslavement of black didn't end even until the eighties, they simple went underground. Yet, in spite of this, some black people still bow their head toward Arabia moon god. God is every where but they must bow toward Arabia before he can answer their prayers-- isn't that brilliant?
In the video you will see the white men who went to meet the Arabian officials to discuss ending slavery in Arabia. In the video you will see how they forced black women to walk around naked in public- such a disgrace. You will see how they sell black people like we are animals. If you look closely at the video, you will see some little children who look half-black and half-Arab: those are the children that came from rapes. Many of these children have different fathers but same mother because the kidnapping and raping of black women was legal and rampant.
It took the effort of the white men to put a stop to these atrocities being committed on black people.
The shameful treatment of black people by Arabian savages: The women were forced to walk around naked, sexually harrased, and raped. They were forced to serve their pervert "master" naked.
The incident took place in Selamet village of Diyarbakır’s Bismil district on February 4, 2021. A married father of 7 children, Aslan Karakaş, who received a negative response from Emine, the 15-year-old daughter of his uncle, whom he wanted to ‘buy as a co-wife,’ sprayed a vehicle, inside which the girl was, with a Kalashnikov. The little girl, who was the target of the bullets, lost her 4-month struggle for life in the hospital where she was taken. Karakaş surrendered to the police with his gun 5 months later and was arrested.
2022: The prosecutor, who gave his opinion in the ongoing case at the Diyarbakır Heavy Penal Court, stated that the accused Aslan Karakaş (32) wanted to marry his 15-year-old cousin in an imam marriage despite the fact that he was married. He stated that he had animosity towards his family.
In the opinion, it is stated that while Emine and her family were leaving the house to go shopping on the day of the murder, the suspect Aslan’s sister Münevver stopped the car with Emine and her family under the pretext of speaking, and Aslan Karakaş sprayed the vehicle with a Kalashnikov while the family was trying to escape quickly, thinking that they would be attacked.
It was stated that 15-year-old Emine Karakaş, who was seriously injured by the bullets that hit her body, was treated in the intensive care unit for 4 months, but lost her battle for life. In the opinion, it was reported that the accused, who fled after the incident, turned off his mobile phones and disappeared. Stating that the accused Karakaş surrendered with the gun he scanned the vehicle 5 months after the attack, the prosecutor demanded that the two suspects, sister and brother, be sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment separately for the crime of deliberately murdering the child by designing in unanimity of opinion and action.
The defendant, whose defense was taken against the opinion, said, “I told her mother that I wanted to marry my cousin. Then I talked to my wife and said that I wanted to make my second marriage. I also convinced my wife. On the positive side, I wanted to get married with an imam marriage. I did not think about divorcing my first wife. After a while, when my economic problems started, her family did not allow the marriage.
“On the day of the incident, when my sister went to the vehicle the family was in to talk, they didn’t stop and quickly drove away, so I shot after them several times to scare them. Since the gun is in the rapid firing position, I fired 4 bullets every time my hand went to the trigger,” he said.
His sister, Münevver Karakaş, who was tried without arrest, also stated that she did not agree with the prosecutor’s opinion and that she had no fault in the incident and said, “Emine told me that she wanted to be married to someone else. When I saw a crowd in front of the house on the day of the incident, I went to persuade Emine to give up marrying someone else.
“I am innocent, my intention was to talk to them. But when he refused to talk to me and moved the car, my brother opened fire on them. I want my acquittal,” she said.
The court decided to give the defendant’s lawyers time to make their final defense against the opinion and postponed the hearing to a later date.
On Thursday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court heard four members of the family deny any involvement and will stand trial later in the year, but the victim’s brother insists charges against him should be dropped, arguing he has no case to answer.
It was revealed in 2021 that the victim, a Muslim woman from Afghanistan, had been in a relationship with a Sri Lankan Christian man who her family did not approve of.
In November last year, the woman was dropped at the Sefton Plaza shopping centre in South Australia, where she believed she would be meeting her mother.
When she arrived, the woman, 21, was confronted by her father, 57, brother, 31, mother, 56, sister, 29, and brother-in-law, 28, who had allegedly conspired to abduct her and “take their daughter back”.
The victim’s father, brother and brother-in-law were charged with one count each of attempted murder and unlawful detention.
Her mother and sister are also facing charges of attempted murder and false imprisonment.
On Thursday, lawyers for the victim’s mother, father, sister and brother-in-law conceded there was a case to argue and pleaded not guilty on behalf of the accused.
Counsel for the victim’s brother, who is facing charges purely for an alleged home invasion supposedly orchestrated by the mother, also pleaded not guilty for his client.
They will all stand trial at a later date.
However, lawyers for the brother charged with attempted murder and the home invasion said their client would seek to have the charges dropped ahead of trial.
Prosecution counsel said doing so would result in “a factually complex” legal argument.
Magistrate Simon Smart remanded him in custody until legal arguments can commence next month.
In the family’s first appearance last year, SAPOL Senior Sergeant Grant Watterson told the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court the victim’s brother-in-law was contacted by the family to “help get their daughter back” after the victim moved in with her partner.
“She believed that her family were trying to kill her … her family will not stop trying to kill her,” Sergeant Watterson said.
The Adelaide Magistrates Court was also told the victim had been promised to marry her cousin.
By June, the court heard video footage from police-worn body cameras had captured the victim’s mother and father discussing the attempted murder in “different languages” which have since been translated. The family will return to court later this year for trial.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again objected to the demands for NATO membership of Sweden and Finland, saying that Turkey “will not take a positive stance” unless the two countries respect their promises regarding the “fight against terrorism.”
“We maintain a firm position on Finland and Sweden. NATO membership of these two countries will not be approved until the promises made to our country are fulfilled,” Erdoğan said on August 8, according to the Bianet News Agency.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO in June; it was a decision spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Turkish government, however, has objected to the membership requests. Turkey has accused the two countries of “tolerating and providing shelter to terrorists.”
The “ terrorists ” the Turkish government is referring to are the anti-ISIS, secular Kurdish forces in Syria, as well as the actual or supposed supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric who was for decades Erdoğan’s ally but whom Turkey now claims organized a 2016 coup attempt. The Turkish government now calls the Gülen community, its own former ally, the “Fetullahist Terrorist Organization” (FETÖ).
A trilateral agreement signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland in June stipulates that Finland and Sweden will not “provide support” for any of these groups.
Erdoğan also alluded at a cross-border military incursion against the Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria.
“We will continue our fight against terrorism. Our decision to establish a 30-kilometer secure line along our southern border is permanent,” Erdoğan said . “I hope we will soon complete this security zone by clearing the last areas where the terrorist organization is still in Syria.” The “terrorist organization” Erdoğan targets is the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) that fought against ISIS in Syria and that is a US ally.
Since 2016, Turkey has carried out four major military campaigns in Syria, two of them — the 2018 “Operation Olive Branch” and the 2019 “Operation Peace Spring” — being against Kurdish-controlled areas. The military invasions have forcibly changed the demographic balance of the regions, driving out Kurds, Yazidis and Christians from their lands.
For more than two months, Erdoğan has been saying that a new military offensive is imminent. If he does invade Syria, the group that will benefit is ISIS.
Meanwhile, as Turkey’s government accuses Sweden and Finland of “supporting terrorists,” convicted [islamic] Hizbullah terrorists have been released from Turkish prisons. Erdoğan releases the terrorists from prison and in return Hizbullah supporters vote for him. The Erdoğan regime enables Hizbullah just as it enables ISIS and other Islamist groups in Syria.
Since April, the Turkish newspaper Sozcu has been reporting on Hizbullah terrorists who had been imprisoned but then released from prison by Turkish courts.
Turkish Hizbullah is a terrorist organization established in 1978. It has engaged in murder and torture, particularly targeting secular Kurds in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s. Many of Hizbullah’s members in Turkey are Kurdish Islamists. Erdoğan is not targeting those Kurds. He like, ISIS, would like an Islamic state; ethnicity is not a factor, just as it is not a factor for anyone who converts to Islam. The Erdoğan regime is targeting secular Kurds who oppose its tyranny and request equal national rights.
Hizbullah’s leaders were heavily influenced by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and reportedly received training in Iran. Turkish Hizbullah’s main effort is to establish an independent Islamic state under strict sharia law in southeastern Turkey.
According to a 2000 report in the Turkish Daily News: “… the [islamic] Hizbullah terrorists recently apprehended by the police admitted in their testimonies that they have received military training and all required support in Iran and detailed the names and the descriptions of the Iranian guards who acted on behalf of the Iranian government.”
On April 16, Sozcu reported that Hizbullah terrorists Cihan Yıldız and Mehmet Ali Geçer were released from prison before local elections in 2019. They had been given aggravated life sentences for the murder of nine people, including a Kurdish member of parliament, Mehmet Sincar.
On May 6, Sozcu once again reported that 19 more Hizbullah terrorists were released in 2019. They had been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for the murder of 91 people in 129 attacks on behalf of Hizbullah.
On May 16, Sozcu reported that “not a single prisoner remains in jail in the main Hizbullah case!”
“Eighteen Hizbullah terrorists had been convicted for the murder of 165 citizens and the wounding of 85 and sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. But some were released in 2011 after Article 102 of the CMK [Code of Criminal Procedure], which restricts long detention periods, came into effect. The rest of Hizbullah convicts were released before the local elections of March 1, 2019.”
Cemal Tutar, the head of the military wing of Turkish Hizbullah, who killed 109 people by pulling the trigger himself, was among those released: “I took part in every level of Hizbullah,” he said in his last defense at court.
“Allah has given us the task to make Islam dominant on earth. I don’t regret anything. We have become a bomb ready to explode in prison. Our patience has run out. We can turn the [prison] into a bloodbath.”
Kemal Gülşen, one of the released terrorists, told the court: “I did all these actions for Allah, for Islam. If I go out right now, I’ll do it again without blinking an eye. In fact, I have done other actions that were not stated in the indictment and that the prosecutor could not solve. Our war is for salat [the five daily Islamic prayers]. I do not expect justice from you. The decision of this court is political.”
Mahmut Demir, who was released after four dead bodies were found under his house, said in the courtroom: “I took it as my duty to pledge allegiance to Hizbullah. I joined the organization with great love. I took an oath of allegiance to the community for the dominance of the Qur’an in the whole world. Death is martyrdom for us. We pray five times a day for martyrdom to be granted to us. With Allah’s help, Hizbullah will be victorious. Hizbullah is a school of love.”
Deutsche Welle reported in 2019 that more than a hundred Turkish Hizbullah convicts sentenced to life in prison had already been released. In January, 2011, for instance, Hizbullah’s top executives Edip Gümüş, Cemal Tutar and Hacı Inan, were freed. Gümüş escaped to Iran and assumed the leadership of Turkish Hizbullah worldwide.
A legal Islamist party, Hüda-Par, with ties with Turkish Hizbullah, has been in strategic cooperation with Turkey’s AKP government since the November 1, 2015 elections, according to Dr Mehmet Kurt, author of the book Hizbullah in Turkey: Religion, Violence and Belonging.
According to Kurt, the Hizbullah base, who openly supported the government after the July 15, 2016 attempted coup, took to the streets in the southeastern provinces during protests that the government named the “democracy rallies” [after the coup attempt], Hüda-Par, Kurt reported, and encouraged its supporters to vote for the AKP, thereby turning Hizbullah “into a strategic partner of the government through Hüda-Par in the 2010s.”
Hizbullah-linked media outlets, Kurt noted, gave conditional support to the AKP’s constitutional amendment referendum in 2017: “Those conditions included the release of Hizbullah members from prisons.”
The Turkish government — not exactly known for its support of freedom, human rights or individuals and organizations that advocate equal rights for minorities in the region — is a political ally of the Hizbullah terrorist organization. The Turkish regime should be asked why it is accusing Sweden and Finland of “supporting terrorism” when it, itself, supports it.
In the trial of a 49-year-old man who allegedly killed his wife with at least 30 knife wounds in Bad Arolsen in northern Hesse, the verdict is expected on Wednesday (1.30 p.m.)
The man has to stand trial for murder at the Kassel Regional Court.
The prosecution accuses him of having acted out of base motives. The Iraqi is said to have lived strictly according to Muslim principles.
According to the prosecution, his 32-year-old wife, on the other hand, lived a modern lifestyle and wanted to separate. He had taken this as an affront to his honour. Even before the crime, the accused had threatened to kill his wife several times.
On July 19 last year, he allegedly committed the crime in their shared flat in the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, he stabbed the victim at least 30 times with a knife – in front of their five children aged between one and eleven.
At the beginning of the trial, the accused testified that there had been an argument between him and his wife. He could not remember anything about the crime itself.
Refusing to review evidence from a Christian couple trying to recover their 12-year-old daughter after she was allegedly kidnapped and forced to convert and marry, a judge in Pakistan last week denied them custody, sources said.
Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench on Thursday (Aug. 18) denied the petition by Parvez Masih and his wife, Yasmeen, seeking custody of their daughter Zarvia, said rights activist Sherkan Malik.
“The judge dismissed our petition in under two minutes – he even refused to look at any of the evidence, which clearly showed that the minor child was threatened to give a statement in favor of the accused, Imran Shahzad and his wife Adiba,” Malik told Morning Star News.
The judge, declaring “The girl is 12, she is married, and she did it out of her free will,” made the ruling in spite of recorded evidence that Shahzad had threatened to kill Zarvia’s two brothers if she told the truth, Malik said. The ruling leaves Zarvia in the custody of Shahzad and his wife.
Malik, a Muslim, said that Masih and his wife, who live in Rawalpindi, approached him for legal assistance over fears that their daughter had been killed after being kidnapped.
“Since May 14, when a judicial magistrate in Rawalpindi handed Zarvia’s custody to Imran on the basis of the child’s verbal statement that she was 14 years old and had married the accused of her own free will, her parents have had no contact with her, leaving them to question if she is even alive,” Malik said. “The judge told us that since the girl had already recorded her statement, this was now just a frivolous case, and there was nothing more the court could do in this regard.”
Malik said that in July, Zarvia managed to make a phone call to her brother, telling him that Shahzad, 40, had threatened to kill him and her other brother if she incriminated Shahzad in the abduction case.
“The family has an audio recording of Zarvia’s phone call to her eldest brother,” Malik told Morning Star News.
Based on this information, Masih filed a petition for the recovery of his daughter in the Rawalpindi additional sessions court on July 13, but the judge dismissed the case on July 14.
Basis of Kidnapping Case
Masih said his family had given refuge to Shahzad, his wife Adiba and their three children in their house because Shahzad was jobless and did not have a home.
He said that Shahzad physically abused his own wife and children, and so Masih asked the family to leave their house after some weeks.
On April 30, a week after Shahzad and his family vacated their house, Adiba came to their home and lured Zarvia into going with her to the market without informing her family, Masih said.
When their daughter did not return home at dusk, Masih and his wife started searching for her and contacted relatives of the Muslim couple. Masih said he received a WhatsApp voice message from Shahzad that night telling him that Zarvia was in his custody, and that they should not contact his relatives again.
The family then registered a kidnapping case against the couple with the Sadiqabad Police Station in Rawalpindi on May 1. The police recovered Zarvia from a brick kiln in Faisalabad 13 days later and also arrested three persons, including the Muslim couple and an accomplice identified only as Liaquat, Malik said.
“Despite being a minor, Zarvia was not sent to a children’s shelter home for the night but was instead kept in the women’s police station in Rawalpindi in the same cell as Adiba,” Malik said.
Zarvia recorded her statement before a judicial magistrate on May 14, claiming that she was 14 years old and did not want to undergo a medical examination, he said.
“She also said that she had converted to Islam and contracted marriage with Imran Shahzad with her free will,” Malik said, adding that on the basis of her statement, the judge dismissed the kidnapping case and ordered the release of all three suspects. The judge roundly rejected the girl’s birth certificate and other documents proving she was under the age to legally marry.
“The sessions court completely ignored her birth certificate, church registration documents and school certifications which confirmed her age as 12,” he said, adding that her coerced statement that she was 14 was immaterial because the legal age to marry under the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act is 16.
“Police and judiciary tend to support those who commit crimes such as forced conversions, child marriages and sexual violence because they believe they will receive a heavenly reward for helping convert someone to Islam, regardless of how intentional or coercive the conversion is,” Malik said. [...] Church leaders and rights activists cite forced conversion as the biggest challenge for vulnerable minority communities of Pakistan. “Zarvia’s case is yet another example of how minor children are being subjected to sexual violence in the guise of Islamic marriage,” Marshall said.
At least 1,000 women from religious minorities, including Christians and Hindus, are forcibly converted and married annually in Pakistan, according to various rights groups. Although Pakistan officials have dismissed such reports as “rubbish and baseless,” activists assert actual numbers could be much higher as many cases go unreported.
Nigeria’s Kano State High Court doubled down on a ruling that the Sharia court system has the power to hand down death sentences in blasphemy cases. The decision blurs the line between what can be tried in Sharia court, raising concerns on the implications for religious freedom.
The three-judge panel held that the Kano State Sharia Court has jurisdiction to try blasphemy cases. The ruling comes after the case of Yahaya Aminu Sharif, a 22-year-old singer who was sentenced to death on accusations of blasphemy.
Sharif was arrested after a series of audio recordings became public where he appeared to elevate an imam above the Muslim prophet Mohammed. In August 2020, the Kano State Sharia Court found Sharif guilty of blasphemy and sentenced him to death.
However, the court did not allow Sharif legal representation during his trial, so the secular court ruled that the Sharia court must retry Sharif’s case. The order may have appeared positive for Sharif because it allowed him a fair trial. But the order was a green light by a secular court of the Sharia court’s authority to try blasphemy cases and impose religious sentences.
The court’s actions blur the lines between who and what can be tried in Sharia court, having the potential to use Sharia law as a means of persecuting religious minorities, including northern Nigerian Christians, in the country. Immediately after the initial ruling, Sharif’s lawyers appealed the decision to send his case back to the Sharia Court for a retrial. Today’s ruling, that Sharif’s case be sent back to the Sharia Court for retrial, is the result of that appeal.
“Nigeria’s long history of disregard for religious freedom has taken another turn for the worse today, highlighting yet again the mistake the U.S. made last year in taking Nigeria off the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list,” said Jeff King, President of International Christian Concern (ICC). “As we look forward to the Department of State’s CPC announcement later this year, we can only hope and pray that they correct their mistake and designate Nigeria as a CPC once more.”
Currently, the 12 northern states of Nigeria operate under two competing legal systems. One system—of which the Kano State High Court is a part—is based on the secular Nigerian penal code. The other is based on Sharia law.
The constitutionality of this system has long been debated, as the Nigerian Constitution guarantees religious freedom to citizens, including the right to “to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.” Sharia courts, to the contrary, enforce strict adherence to Islam and severely punishes perceived insults to Islam.
“Today’s High Court ruling represents a major setback for human rights in Nigeria overall,” said Jay Church, ICC’s Advocacy Manager for Africa. “For a secular court to officially recognize a Sharia court’s jurisdiction to hand down death sentences for blasphemy is the largest step backward in Nigeria’s legal system since the implementation of criminal Sharia law in 2000. I hope that the international community, including the U.S. Department of State, recognizes this development for the egregious violation of human rights that it is.”
“The court’s decision is a strike against religious freedom in Nigeria and officially sets the legal structure for the continued persecution of Nigeria’s Christians,” said Matias Perttula, ICC’s Director of Advocacy. “This decision was clearly a step back for all human rights, religious freedom, and freedom as whole for Nigeria.”
The High Court order sparked condemnation from human rights advocates around the world.
Commenting on the case earlier this year, Frederick Davie of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called on the High Court to release Sharif immediately. “Convicting this man on blasphemy charges for expressing his beliefs is reprehensible—and sentencing him to death for such actions is absurd. He does not deserve to be detained for two years, let alone sentenced to death.”
Though the legal age of consent has traditionally taken second place to what is perceived as the parents’ right to marry their daughters when they please, Nigeria is beginning to feel the global pushback against child marriage.
Still, Nigeria’s Muslim population is resistant to the coming change. Today, 16% of Muslim girls are married before they turn fifteen. That number is as high as 48% in the predominantly Muslim north of the country.
In 2013, Nigeria’s Senate rejected a recommendation that would standardize the national legal age of consent to eighteen years in all cases by abolishing exemptions for Muslim and traditional communities. The senators argued that the law would discriminate against Muslim girls, who are considered “of age” when married.
For child brides, that decision rests with their parents. The issue of child marriage in Nigeria is also an issue of religious freedom since in cases where a Christian girl is kidnapped, indoctrinated, and forcefully married by her Muslim captors other Muslims often justify the incident on religious grounds.
Underage marriage is a problem across Nigeria, but it is particularly problematic for Christians in the north, where state governments often refuse to protect Christian families from abuse. As a result, Christians in Nigeria’s north have lost the right to security for their children.
The following is an excerpt from a letter written by Anna Nimmyel, a Christian woman living in Kaduna state, Nigeria. Anna is a single mother of a 16-year-old girl named Grace. Over two months ago, Grace was kidnapped by a Muslim man named Mallam Abdulra’ub.
For 17 days, Anna did not hear from her daughter until the kidnapper finally called to inform her that Grace had been forcibly converted to Islam.
She contacted the police, who detained Mallam but only required him to spend one night in a police cell and was released without bail. Grace was detained in jail for 7 days but was ultimately returned to her kidnapper.
She still hasn’t returned to her mother, with the Kaduna State Interfaith Office, that is handling the case, saying that they cannot return the girl to her mother since she is now of a different religion.
With regards to her appeal to authorities to get her daughter back, Anna writes, “As at the time of writing this petition the girl is in the custody of an Islamic cleric to live with him as directed by Kaduna Interfaith under the guise that they cannot force the girl to go back to her mother since she refused to. I cried and pleaded on my knees with the police and Interfaith that they should please hand over my daughter as I do not have an issue with the girl having a different religion. I told them the girl is my only child and she is all I have in this world, but my plea was not acknowledged.”
Anna went on to cite sections of the Nigerian constitution that are supposed to protect minors, including Section 29(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended), which defines a minor as anyone below the age of 18 years old.
The Nigerian constitution goes on to define the separation of a minor from their parents as a crime. In her letter, Anna calls out the Nigerian police and Kaduna State’s Interfaith office for their handling of the case and their refusal to reunite Anna with her daughter.
Please pray for Anna and her daughter, as well as for the many other young women who have suffered a similar fate.
Christianity Etc › Re: The Arab Slave Trade by BetterHeadline: 3:52pm On Sep 19, 2022*. Modified: 6:57am On Apr 25, 2025
