#RedWednesday call for forced conversions to be recognised as crimes against women

Father Michael Nazir-Ali - image by © Weenson OO/PICTURE-U.NET

Source: ACN/ICN

As night fell yesterday, a vigil took place outside Westminster Cathedral - which was illuminated in scarlet light - to mark Red Wednesday - focussing on the injustice, discrimination and persecution against Christians and other faith groups. A choir from St John Bosco College, Battersea, sang on the cathedral steps as the crowd gathered. Aid to the Church in Need director Neville Kyrke-Smith introduced Coptic Archbishop Angaelos, who thanked the choir "For filling the London air" with their music. He told the crowds: "Defending people's right to practice their faith is not just a good thing to do - it's the only thing we must do."

After Mass, celebrated in the Cathedral by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Chaplain for Aid to the Church in Need, there was reception in Westminster Cathedral Hall for the launch of ACN's report: Hear Her Cries: The kidnapping, forced conversion and sexual victimisation of Christian women and girls.

In a brief address, Father Nazir-Ali, former Anglican Bishop of Rochester and now a Catholic priest said: ".. there should be pressure on the UN to add forced conversion and forced marriage to the UN's list of crimes of violence against women. This should be possible to do."

The priest, a former bishop in Pakistan, where forced conversions are common, added: "It would be a worthy addition to that list, some of the other additions are not as worthy as this one. Secondly, the UK government has a number of aid programmes in Pakistan to enhance the position of women. Such programmes…should directly address violence against women, specifically abduction and forced marriage."

Professor Michele Clark, a human rights advocate who has researched the plight of Coptic Christian women in Egypt, and retired professor of international affairs at George Washington University, USA, said forced conversions were "strategic".

She said: "We are talking about strategic and targeted efforts to erode minority Christian communities by attacking women. This is a war of attrition against Christians using women.

"Our stories show that women from a variety of economic backgrounds are targeted. What they have in common is that they are Christian and they are girls."

She added: "It's not going away, these challenges are increasing. This is truly a global phenomenon…It's organised, it's growing and it's becoming more visible."

John Pontifex, Head of Press and Information at ACN (UK), and one of the authors of the report, said: "Every day, girls and women go about their lives under the daily threat of being kidnapped, raped, forced to convert and marry their abductor."

Alongside the report, ACN launched a petition calling on the UN and the UK government to take more effective steps to tackle the epidemic of sexual violence against Christian women and girls, and those of other religious minorities.

To sign ACN's petition and order a hard copy of the ACN Hear Her Cries report please visit: https://acnuk.org/petition-2021/