In a harrowing ordeal that underscores the grave injustices faced by vulnerable communities, three young sisters were illegally detained by their employers and coerced into testifying that they had converted to Islam and wished to return to their captors. The girls, aged just 9, 13, and 16, were trapped in a nightmare, their innocence exploited most cruelly. But in a moment of hope, Justice Shakil Ahmed of the Lahore High Court on Thursday, August 15, courageously allowed these terrified children to retract their forced statements, returning them to the arms of their heartbroken Christian parents, Naveed Masih and Mina Naveed, who work as brick kiln laborers in Punjab’s Kasur District.
The girls’ parents had entrusted their daughters to a Muslim woman, Haleema Bibi, in September 2023, believing they would be placed in honest domestic work. Instead, they were met with demands for an exorbitant “security deposit” of 300,000 rupees (around 1,077 USD) to see their oldest daughter again. This extortionate request was just the beginning of their torment. According to Katherine Sapna, executive director of the legal advocacy group Christians True Spirit, the girls were manipulated and terrorized into falsely claiming their conversion to Islam, all to prevent their parents from rescuing them.
When allowed to finally speak with their daughters after their coerced testimonies, the girls, in a rare moment of safety, revealed the horrifying truth. Haleema Bibi and the employers had orchestrated a sinister plot, forcing them to declare their supposed voluntary conversion and their desire to stay with their captors. The same brutal tactic was used by all three employers to crush the parents’ desperate attempts to bring their children home.
“It’s quite possible that Haleema gave this idea to the employers,” Sapna said. “This trend of using religious conversion as a tool for bonded labor is growing, particularly in the brick kiln industry in Punjab.”
For the Naveed family, poverty was the relentless force that drove them to make an impossible choice. With no other options, they had sent their precious daughters—16-year-old Hina, 13-year-old Neha, and 9-year-old Mehru—into the hands of Haleema Bibi, a woman who had gained the trust of their small Christian community in New Abadi, Chak No. 68 village. Bibi had positioned herself as a lifeline, finding employment for Christian children in the homes of wealthier families. She worked on commission, a middlewoman who held the fragile hopes of struggling parents in her grasp.
“Haleema assured us that they would be placed in good homes, and we believed her,” recalled Mina Naveed, her heart aching with regret. “Most of the kiln workers send their children to work in homes to supplement their income. Only then can one manage to feed the family, especially if it’s a big one.”
But the promise of a better life for their daughters quickly turned into a nightmare. When Mina’s youngest daughter, just five years old, fell gravely ill in July, desperation led her to call Bibi, pleading for her eldest daughter, Hina, to be allowed to return home to help care for the sick child. It was an urgent request, made more pressing by the reality that Mina and her husband could scarcely afford to miss work at the kiln.
After days of anxious waiting, the news that came shattered their world. Bibi informed them that Hina’s employers were demanding an outrageous sum—300,000 rupees—as a ‘security deposit’ to return their daughter. “We were shocked to hear this absurd demand and refused to accept it,” Mina said. “When we insisted on Hina’s unconditional return, Haleema started threatening us with legal consequences.”
In that moment, the trust they had placed in Bibi crumbled into fear and betrayal. Mina, now terrified for the safety of all her daughters, demanded that Bibi return all three of her girls immediately. But instead of compassion, she was met with a cold refusal. “She bluntly told us that all three girls had converted to Islam and could not be given back to their Christian parents,” Mina said.
The Naveed family’s story is one of countless others, where poverty and exploitation intersect with faith to create a living hell for the most vulnerable. Their daughters, like many others, were caught in a trap that sought to strip them not only of their freedom but of their very identity.
With the unwavering support of Christians True Spirit (CTS), the heartbroken parents, Naveed and Mina Naveed, took the brave step of filing a petition in the Lahore High Court, desperate to rescue their daughters from the clutches of illegal detention. The courtroom was filled with a tense silence, only to be shattered when the three sisters, under the weight of fear and manipulation, declared they were Muslims and didn’t want to return to their parents. The shock and sorrow were palpable, but there was a glimmer of hope when Justice Shakil Ahmed, in a display of compassion and wisdom, allowed the parents precious time to speak with their daughters.
“It was a sensitive case, and we applaud Justice Ahmed for making the right decision,” Sapna said. “The parents succeeded in convincing their daughters to retract their statements, a moment of truth that set them free.”
Hina, the oldest daughter, courageously revealed the psychological torment she endured at the hands of her employer, Madiha Sameer. “She brainwashed me into believing that converting to Islam was the only way to save myself from my family,” Hina confessed. “She told me that my father would do horrible things to me if I went back—that he would send me to Dubai as a sex worker or even sell my body organs for money.” The horrors didn’t end there; Hina recounted how Sameer mistreated her, subjecting her to beatings and forcing her to eat her meals on the floor, a constant reminder of her perceived inferiority.
Her younger sisters, Neha and Mehru, shared similarly distressing experiences. Neha spoke of the relentless pressure from her employer, Uzma Faisal, who manipulated her into telling the court that she had willingly accepted Islam and wanted to stay with her. “She portrayed a very negative image of my parents,” Neha said. For Mehru, the youngest, the nightmare was over, and she expressed her joy at being reunited with her family.
However, despite the overwhelming evidence of coercion and abuse, the court chose not to order legal action against Haleema Bibi and the three Muslim families involved in the girls’ forced conversion. The petition was quietly disposed of, with the judge noting that the girls had “expressed their desire to join their father/petitioner.” Though they are free, the lack of accountability for those who wronged them leaves a bitter aftertaste, a reminder of the injustices that still haunt their story.
This case highlights the relentless struggles faced by marginalized families in Pakistan, where faith and poverty are often weaponized against the most vulnerable. Yet, it also shows the resilience of those who refuse to give up on their loved ones, even in the face of unimaginable adversity.