Gender: Female
Perpetrator: Pakistan
Religion or Belief: Christian – Unspecified/Other
Date of Detainment: July/26/2026
Current Status: Not Released
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Forced Renunciation of Faith
Maria Shahbaz was subjected to forced renunciation of faith.
On July 26, 2025,13-year-old Shahbaz was abducted by a 30-year-old man near her home, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to her abductor. Police in Lahore delayed the filing of the family's first information report (FIR) and influenced the judge to dismiss their abduction complaint.
On July 31, 2025, the Model Town court of Judicial Magistrate Hassan Sarfaraz Cheema awarded custody of Shahbaz to her captor after accepting falsified documents claiming she was 18 years old.
In March 2026, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the decision.