The European Parliament has adopted an emergency resolution condemning the treatment of Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Christian girl from Lahore whose case has become a symbol of the plight faced by religious minority girls in Pakistan.
Maria disappeared in July 2025. According to her family, she was abducted, pressured into converting to Islam, and forced to marry a Muslim man significantly older than herself. Her relatives have consistently maintained that she was only 13 years old at the time of her disappearance and therefore incapable of legally consenting to marriage.
The case has generated widespread concern because, despite official documents indicating that Maria was still a minor, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled in February 2026 that she should remain with the man accused of abducting her rather than be returned to her family, as Supporters of the marriage have argued that Maria converted to Islam and married voluntarily.
Human rights organizations have criticized the decision, arguing that it failed to adequately protect a child who may have been subjected to coercion and abuse.
Although the resolution centres on Maria’s case, Members of the European Parliament stressed that it reflects a wider pattern affecting Pakistan’s religious minorities.
The resolution, initiated by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, calls on the Pakistani authorities to ensure Maria’s immediate protection, guarantee a fair legal process, and fully enforce laws prohibiting child marriage (effectively abduction) and forced religious conversion.
Speaking after the vote, ECR Shadow Rapporteur Bert-Jan Ruissen said Maria’s case demonstrated that religious persecution directly “affects young girls whose freedom, faith and childhood are taken away from them”.
For years, international human rights organizations have documented allegations that Christian and Hindu girls are coerced into converting to Islam and married off to older Muslim men.
While Pakistan’s government maintains that forced conversion is illegal and disputes the scale of the problem, campaigners argue that existing protections are inconsistently enforced and that families often struggle to secure justice through the courts.
Against that backdrop, the European Parliament’s resolution urges Pakistan to strengthen enforcement of laws against child marriage while ensuring greater protection for vulnerable girls from minority communities.
The resolution also calls on the European Union to use its diplomatic and economic relationship with Pakistan to encourage tangible improvements. Ruissen argued that the EU should leverage its political dialogue and trade ties to press Islamabad for meaningful reforms, insisting that girls such as Maria “must be protected and returned to safety, not handed back to those accused of abusing them.”
While European Parliament resolutions are not legally binding on third countries, they carry significant political weight and often shape the EU’s foreign policy priorities. In this case, lawmakers hope sustained diplomatic pressure will encourage stronger safeguards for religious minorities and greater accountability.
