A Christian mother of three who was aducted, raped, and forced to marry a Muslim man has escaped and reunited with her family.
Fouzia Sadiq, a young Christian mother in Pakistan, was aducted and sold into slavery to a man named Muhammed Nazir. The British-Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) helped her escape captivity and reunite with her family last Wednesday.
Fouzia was sold to Nazir for £30 and forced into bonded labor. Her entire family was enslaved in a similar bond agreement and could only buy back their freedom after paying £1,000 each.
The bond agreement signed by Fouzia’s own grandfather resulted in “generation after generation” of his family being “subjected to this illegal working agreement unable to pay the extortionate price for their freedom,” BPCA said in a statement.
One day when Fouzia was cleaing Nazir’s property she was kidnapped and held captive for two days. She was raped and forced to enter an Islamic marriage with Nazir.
The BPCA reported that Fouzia’s family was told by Nazir that she was now “his property” and threatened the family not to alert athorities.
Fouzia was held captive for two days before escaping and reuniting with her brother Paris and three young children in a Pakistani safehouse.
“God has worked a miracle,” Paris said. “I never thought I would see my sister again.”
“Our whole family has grieved her loss as if she was dead. Now that she is free we will do whatever we can to make sure she is not forced back into the depravity her Muslim captor subjected her to,” he added.
Fouzia has requested a humanitarian visa that would allow her to leave the threat of captivity in Pakistan and migrate to the West.
Fouzia and her family ask that Christians around the world pray for their safety and the end of repeated injustices against Pakistani Christians.
“We ask for the prayers and support from Christians everywhere,” Paris said.
“There is a huge injustice happening in Pakistan and if you do not protect us and ignore our plight, one day it could be your daughters and sisters that are trappped. I pray Christians respond to our pain and offer help as we are desperate and need your assistance,” he concluded.
The Chairman of BPCA, Wilson Chowdhry said in a statement: “The pain felt by our sisters in Pakistan wounds the heart of our community.”
He added that Fouzia may be forced to remain in her Islamic marraige to Nazir “despite existing legal precendents.”
“Fouzia and her family simply have to be removed from Pakistan and granted safety in another country,” Chowdhry concluded.
