[Want even more content from FPM? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more—now for just $3.99/month. Click here to sign up.]
According to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), there are 51 Muslim-majority countries. Yet, none of them treat non-Muslim communities with respect and dignity. The brutality that Muslim regimes and societies inflict on non-Muslims is extreme — and children are often the target.
When it comes to discrimination against non-Muslim children, including Hindus and Christians, Pakistan is one of the most radical and alarming cases.
Minority children in Pakistan face systematic abuse and discrimination. This includes barriers to education, abductions, incidents of child “marriages,” child labor, discrimination in public services, and forced conversions to Islam.
A new report by Pakistan’s National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) highlights the severe challenges faced by children who belong to religious minority groups. It calls for immediate action by the government to curb the high levels of discrimination emanating from systemic bias, social exclusion, and institutional neglect.
The report, titled “Situation Analysis of Children from Minority Religions in Pakistan,” also raises the crucial issues of forced conversion, child marriages, and child labor faced by minority children:
“The worrying trend of systemic discrimination affects every part of the minority population’s daily life, especially their children. Minority children frequently face discrimination from classmates and educators in schools. They also have to deal with curricula that could reinforce negative preconceptions about their religion. Isolation, below-average academic achievement, and, in many cases, school dropout are the expected outcomes of such an educational setting.
Minority households’ financial situation presents an equally alarming image. Many individuals are caught up in cycles of bonded labor, especially in brick kilns and the agricultural sector, where entire families, including their children, work in cruel conditions.”
The introduction of a “Single National Curriculum” in Pakistani schools in 2020 denigrates religious minorities. It enforces the teaching of the Quran and subjects like Mathematics and Science in an Islamized manner. Many schoolbooks also incite hatred against religious minorities, including Christians.
In its review of Pakistan’s educational curriculum, the study noted the minorities’ concern about the absence of religious inclusion in the “Single National Curriculum”:
“Minority populations often express dissatisfaction with the compulsory study of Islamic religious education due to the absence of other options to examine their own perspectives. This not only infringes upon their religious freedom but also hinders their academic progress, since they are obligated to study a topic that may not align with their principles. Numerous minority students articulate apprehension over their scores on annual evaluations, as their performance in religious studies may adversely impact their total GPA. This intensifies feelings of alienation and reduces their prospects for academic achievement.”
NCRC Minorities Member from Sindh, Pirbhu Lal Satyani, stated:
“Children from religious minorities are among the most marginalized. They face stigma, stereotyping, and structural exclusion that obstruct their full development.”
Naming forced religious conversion and forced marriage of Christian and Hindu minor girls to older Muslim men as the most concerning issues, the report notes that there are few legal options available to the victims.
“Such practices persist despite existing legal protections because of institutional biases, public pressure, and the poor role of law enforcement agencies,” it said.
Christian girls (and to a lesser extent boys) are also frequent targets of physical and sexual abuse, as are children from the Hindu minority.
While all women in Pakistan are vulnerable to gender-based violence in Pakistan, women and girls from religious minorities face overt and violent forms of gender-specific religious persecution.
Abduction and sexual violence of religious minorities is endemic throughout the country. The Movement for Solidarity and Peace calculates that every year up to 1,000 Christian and Hindu children and young women are abducted by Muslim men. These figures are seen as a low estimate because many experience a fear of retaliation and a risk of social shame. This means that Christian and Hindu families are reluctant to report incidents of this kind.
Yet, the number of Hindu and Christian girls abducted, abused, and forcefully converted to Islam with the law’s consent is also growing. Minority women and girls as young as 7 (primarily from poor families and including girls with physical disabilities) are abducted and raped (including gang-raped) by Muslim men. They are forced to marry their abductor and are converted by force. Some are trafficked into slave labor and the sex trade. For example, a 10-year-old Christian girl from Faisalabad was kidnapped in 2024. Her parents feared she could be sold to sex traffickers, according to media reports.
In Pakistan, occupations that are deemed low, dirty, and degrading—such as cleaning sewers or working in brick kilns—are reserved for Christians (including children) by the authorities, as can be seen, for example, in job announcements.
Christians regardless of age are often referred to as “Chura,” a derogatory word meaning “filthy,” which is used for road sweepers or sewage cleaners.
Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan has been an Islamic state. It is within that context that non-Muslims experience increasing levels of persecution.
Open Doors, a human rights organization, has reported on the various ways Christian children are persecuted by the Muslim majority:
As is obvious in Pakistan, a country where 98 percent of the population is Muslim, the Islamic ideology eliminates the feelings of empathy and compassion from its most ardent followers. It destroys moral values and has nothing constructive or positive to offer to civilized societies. The West must finally acknowledge the cruelty of the Islamic Pakistani culture and stop enabling its barbaric regime.