after they allegedly beat and raped her for fleeing her forced marriage and refusing to practice Islam.
Asya Khadim, 15, won a divorce from her allegedly abusive Muslim husband in February and sought shelter with a local aid organization to avoid reprisal attacks, news reports said.
She had been married to Tanveer Qadir for almost 13 months when her mother filed the divorce case on her behalf in January 2006. "They tried to force me to read the Quran,” the Christian girl told Compass Direct, a Christian news agency. "My husband beat me every day for two months because I refused," she was quoted as saying.
Khadim’s comes at the time of an ongoing national debate over abuse of Christian women. Another Pakistani Christian woman, who said she was kidnapped and sold into marriage, told reporters she continues to pray for the return of her missing children.
CHILDREN KIDNAPPED
Almost two years after her children were kidnapped by their Muslim father, Maria Samar John reportedly said she has not given up hope of recovering Joshua and Miriam, now 7 and 5 years old.
In March, John married an employee at the women’s shelter where she has been living since she escaped from a forced marriage five-and-a-half years ago. Wedding Basharat Masih and continuing to learn stitching and needlework have kept her happy, John told Compass Direct.
"I am happy, but the wound that I have because of my children, that can never be completely filled until they come back," John said.
LEGAL AID
Employees at the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) shelter where Maria resides encouraged the marriage saying in published remarks that they "have to help [these women] out of their trauma."
Now 26, John was kidnapped by a Muslim in-law and sold as a bride when she was only 17.
Her husband, Abdul Gaffar, and his seven sisters tried to force John to say her Muslim prayers and read the Quran. John refused, preferring instead to take their beatings, Compass Direct reported. (With reports from Pakistan).
