Psychology of Women

Submitted To: Ma’am Mamoona Rauf

Submitted By: Hina Asghar (MPY-19-39)

Class M.Sc. Psychology

Semester: 4th Semester (Morning

Department of Applied Psychology

Abduction and Kidnapping of
women
 What is Abduction
Abduction means it is the act or process of illegally taking away a person
by using force or coercion. An example of abduction is a criminal driving
away with a rich person’s child tied up in the back seat.

Abduction of Girls or w0men:

Abduction of girls means the illegal and or unlawful carrying away of a
woman for marriage or sexual intercourse.
Difference between Abduction and Kidnapping:

KIDNAPPING
kidnapping is usually accompanied
with a ransom for money or other
gains.
Human rights organizations assess
that, each year, around 1,500 women
and girls are kidnapped and forced to
convert and marry Muslim men in
Pakistan
ABDUCTION
A crime of abduction is considered to be
when a person has been taken away from
his or her original location by persuading
him or her, by some act of fraud or with a
forceful way that may include violence.
Abduction and Kidnapping in Pakistan (2015-2017)

For that indicator, we provide data for Pakistan from 2015 to 2017. The
average value for Pakistan during that period was 7.9 kidnappings per
100,000 women with a minimum of 7.5 kidnappings per 100,000 women
in 2017 and a maximum of 8.6 kidnappings per 100,000 people in 2015.
The latest value from is kidnappings per 100,000 women. For
comparison, the world average in based on countries is 0.0 kidnappings
per 100,000 women.
Factors Involved in Abduction of
Girls and Kidnapping and Forced
Conversion and Marriage:
1. Religious and Social Context 

Second class citizens

Forcing Christian and Hindu girls to marry their captors and to convert to Islam is a
reprehensible practice which happens often in Pakistan
Below are a number of factors which explains how and why this practice is able to
continue ceaselessly. Religious minorities are considered to be second class citizens by
a large part of the Pakistani Muslim community. Islam is the state religion and is
practiced by more than 96 percent of the population. Non-Muslims are despised
because they do not follow the teachings of Islam. This mindset of social hierarchy and
division is often used as a justification for the abuse against vulnerable religious
minorities.
2. Discrimination in regards to religious conversion

A notable factor in such a kidnapping case is the religious aspect. It is

easy for a Christian or an individual from another religious minority to
convert to Islam. Pakistan’s society facilitates this in many ways, so much
so that even for Arzoo - who is underage - the forced conversion was
approved quickly and with insufficient consideration. The mosque was
able to arrange her largely falsified paperwork, which was expedited in
order to conduct a smooth and quick religious conversion. In the cases of
the forced marriages, the conversions and marriages are documented as
legal without comprehensive investigation.
3. Legal protection and the role of religious institutions
In Pakistan, there is no legislation criminalizing forced religious conversion. Neither is
there any official recourse to dissolve the forced conversion and allow victims to return
to their original faith. A conversion can be reversed by a court; however, in the case of
an underage girl, she and her supporters will face the pressure and threats from the
Muslim radical community.

4. Roles of the Police

The police generally hold negative bias towards Christians due to the Islamic thought
which permeates society, as mentioned above. In the case of Arzoo, her parents
received no support from the police until international pressure mounted.
5. Role of the Media
An additional aspect that makes the resolution of forced conversion and abduction
cases of religious minority girls more unlikely is the role of the media. Often, the stories
of religious minority girls who are converted and married are not reported in the media
and, when reported, are covered in favor of the perpetrators rather than from the
perspective of the religious minority girl and her family. The reported abduction cases
and forced conversions of religious minority girls - when covered by local or provincial
media in the Urdu language - remove the forced conversion aspect and often the age of
the girl altogether.
II. Legislation and Justice System Pressure to give false statements in court Joseph from Voice
for Justice states that the kidnappers of these girls often threaten the victims and their families.
When kidnapped girls are produced in front of a court, they are still in the custody of their
abductors, and often times the kidnappers are in the courtroom when the victims deliver their
statements.
6. Pakistan’s International Human Rights Commitments

Pakistan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since
April 2008, and is therefore party to its provisions upon formal ratification in June 2010.
Article 18 of the ICCPR states that “no one shall be subject to coercion which would
impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice”, and prohibits
forceful religious conversion.
Parallel legal system
When a Pakistani Christian girl is abducted and the primary goal is to force her into
marriage with a Muslim man, often her kidnapper or abductor will convert the girl to
Islam as a preliminary step. When the kidnappers convert the girl to Islam, they usually
gain the support and praise of the larger Muslim community for reasons explained in the
section II of this report.
III. Recommendations from the perspective of the
girl child

• A specially trained and appointed taskforce should conduct proper and objective investigations
regarding the circumstances surrounding the girl’s conversion and marriage.

• Allow for the presence of a minority representative or ombudsman to review the case.

• Train judges to interpret laws in accordance with international human rights norms and
legislation.

• It should be ensured that secular laws which set the minimum legal age for marriage to 16 or
18 years preside over Islamic laws that allow for marriage as soon as puberty is reached.

• Create an appeal or reporting mechanism to flag judges, police officers, religious institutes,
Muslim clerics, and official actors who discriminate against, violate rights of, or fail to protect
religious minorities in cases of abduction, forced conversion, and child marriage.
According to Global Data Set Report, 78% of the victims who
are abducted into situations of trafficking are women
According to the Global Dataset Report, 25% of the victims who were
abducted are children.
 THANK
YOU
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