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For some reason, Maria's hands and feet had not been tied by her husband, Mohammed, before he left the house. And none of Mohammed's family was home—only her year-old son, Joshua, who whined for milk. So the pregnant 20-year-old Christian found 10 rupees and set out with the boy to buy some.

It was the first time in almost three years she had stepped out of the house in northeastern Pakistan. In December of 1997, her Muslim uncle had sold her to Mohammed for $1,400—without ever telling her immediate family, she later found out. Since then, she had endured daily beatings from Mohammed and his family. As she stood alone on the street, she forgot about the milk. Instead, she boarded a bus headed for her home city. Maria then realized she didn't have enough money to pay the fare and began to cry. A stranger paid her fare.

Maria found her family, who were at first overjoyed to see her. Three years earlier, they had tried to file a missing persons report, but since they refused to pay a bribe, the police took no action. Maria told her parents and brothers about the brutality she had endured and her forced conversion to Islam. She also explained that her husband had changed her name.

Though she never personally embraced Islam, Pakistani society considered her Muslim, and the men in Maria's family knew they could suffer reprisal for sheltering her. So they told her she had to leave. Frantically searching for help, Maria's mother learned of a Pakistan-based Christian organization, the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). Maria presented herself to the organization's social workers, who immediately found her space in its Christian women's shelter. In a few weeks, CLAAS lawyers began filing for divorce on her behalf.

Since 1992 CLAAS has helped victims of violence and addressed human-rights issues for religious minorities, women, and children. Founded in 1999, the shelter, called Apna Ghar ("Our Home" in Urdu), helps survivors of religious intolerance, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and even human trafficking who need assistance, protection, and rehabilitation.

On May 2, 2001, Maria gave birth and named her daughter Jenny.

"God brought me to such a shelter," Maria says, "where my children are loved a lot, where they love me a lot and care for my children."

Mistreated Minority
Maria, Joshua, and Jenny's story illustrates some of the problems facing Pakistan's minority Christian community of 4 million (2.7 percent of the population) in an officially Muslim nation. Ninety percent of the nation's Christians live in Punjab (which includes Lahore and Islamabad), making them the region's largest religious minority.

Christian women in Pakistan suffer disproportionately, and their suffering remains largely unknown in the international community and the Western church. Most women live with their husbands' families and are not given much protection if the husband is an abuser. Two western Pakistani provinces have imposed shari'ah (a strict Islamic law) and taken away women's right to vote. However, Ann Buwalda, U.S. director of Jubilee Campaign, which helps fund CLAAS's work, says Pakistani women as a whole are not so "utterly" dependent on men as those in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Per capita gross national income for Pakistanis is around $420 a year. Pakistani church leaders estimate that at least 85 percent of the Christian minority is poor. Most live in rural areas, have menial jobs and little education, and own no land. Many Christian women work as servants for Muslim families—making themselves vulnerable to rape, forced conversion, and other indignities.

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June 2004, Vol. 48, No. 6