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Each year, 1,000 Pakistani girls forcibly converted to Islam
Police officers escort Arzoo Raja, background center, after her appearance in Sindh High Court, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 3, 2020. Raja was 13 when she disappeared from her home in central Karachi. The Christian girl’s parents reported her missing and pleaded with police to find her. Two days later, officers reported back that she had been converted to Islam and was married to their 40-year-old Muslim neighbor. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Police officers escort Arzoo Raja, background center, after her appearance in Sindh High Court, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 3, 2020. Raja was 13 when she disappeared from her home in central Karachi. The Christian girl’s parents reported her missing and pleaded with police to find her. Two days later, officers reported back that she had been converted to Islam and was married to their 40-year-old Muslim neighbor. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 03:00 PM EST
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Rita Raja, mother of Arzoo Raja, speaks during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. Arzoo was 13 when she disappeared from her home in central Karachi. The Christian girl’s parents reported her missing and pleaded with police to find her. Two days later, officers reported back that she had been converted to Islam and was married to their 40-year-old Muslim neighbor. She was videotaped outside court sobbing and pleading for her daughter to be returned. The video went viral, creating a social media storm in Pakistan and prompting the authorities to step in. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Rita Raja, mother of Arzoo Raja, speaks during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. Arzoo was 13 when she disappeared from her home in central Karachi. The Christian girl’s parents reported her missing and pleaded with police to find her. Two days later, officers reported back that she had been converted to Islam and was married to their 40-year-old Muslim neighbor. She was videotaped outside court sobbing and pleading for her daughter to be returned. The video went viral, creating a social media storm in Pakistan and prompting the authorities to step in. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 03:00 PM EST
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Neha, 15, who was married as a child, pauses during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Neha said she was tricked into marriage by a favorite aunt. Instead of going to a hospital to visit a relative, she was taken to the home of her aunt’s in-laws and told she would marry her aunt’s 45-year-old brother-in-law. “I told her I can’t, I am too young and I don’t want to. He is old,” Neha said. “She slapped me and locked me up in a room.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Neha, 15, who was married as a child, pauses during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Neha said she was tricked into marriage by a favorite aunt. Instead of going to a hospital to visit a relative, she was taken to the home of her aunt’s in-laws and told she would marry her aunt’s 45-year-old brother-in-law. “I told her I can’t, I am too young and I don’t want to. He is old,” Neha said. “She slapped me and locked me up in a room.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 02:59 PM EST
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Jibran Nasir, lawyer of Arzoo Raja, a teenage Christian girl, who was allegedly abducted and forced to convert and marry a 44-year old Muslim, speaks during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. Nasir says a "mafia" of Islamic clerics, magistrates and local police preys on non-Muslim girls because they are the most vulnerable and the easiest targets “for older men with pedophilia urges.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Jibran Nasir, lawyer of Arzoo Raja, a teenage Christian girl, who was allegedly abducted and forced to convert and marry a 44-year old Muslim, speaks during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. Nasir says a "mafia" of Islamic clerics, magistrates and local police preys on non-Muslim girls because they are the most vulnerable and the easiest targets “for older men with pedophilia urges.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 02:59 PM EST
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Christians demonstrate against child marriage and forced conversion, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. Nearly 1,000 non-Muslim girls are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Christians demonstrate against child marriage and forced conversion, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. Nearly 1,000 non-Muslim girls are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 03:00 PM EST
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Neha, 15, who was married as a child, weeps during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Neha said she was tricked into marriage by a favorite aunt. Instead of going to a hospital to visit a relative, she was taken to the home of her aunt’s in-laws and told she would marry her aunt’s 45-year-old brother-in-law. “I told her I can’t, I am too young and I don’t want to. He is old,” Neha said. “She slapped me and locked me up in a room.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Neha, 15, who was married as a child, weeps during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Neha said she was tricked into marriage by a favorite aunt. Instead of going to a hospital to visit a relative, she was taken to the home of her aunt’s in-laws and told she would marry her aunt’s 45-year-old brother-in-law. “I told her I can’t, I am too young and I don’t want to. He is old,” Neha said. “She slapped me and locked me up in a room.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 03:00 PM EST
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Mullah Kaifat Ullah, a Muslim cleric who performs the Nikkah religious ceremony for Islamic marriages, explains required documents for marriage registration during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. While Ullah said he only marries girls 18 and above, he argued that “under Islamic law a girl’s wedding at the age of 14 or 15 is fine.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Mullah Kaifat Ullah, a Muslim cleric who performs the Nikkah religious ceremony for Islamic marriages, explains required documents for marriage registration during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. While Ullah said he only marries girls 18 and above, he argued that “under Islamic law a girl’s wedding at the age of 14 or 15 is fine.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 03:00 PM EST
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Christians demonstrate against child marriage and forced conversion, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. Nearly 1,000 non-Muslim girls are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Christians demonstrate against child marriage and forced conversion, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. Nearly 1,000 non-Muslim girls are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Dec. 24, 2020 02:59 PM EST
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