Serious Consequences of Marriages Done Under Greed or Pressure

Marriage is a bond in which girls often feel safe and secure. However, marriages done under greed or pressure often turn into a torment for them. The bond that is supposed to provide lifelong protection can become a noose around their neck. A similar incident happened to Noreen Kanwal, a resident of Dijkot in Faisalabad.Noreen Kanwal belongs to the Christian community and was married six years ago to a Chinese citizen named Shen Anthein. According to her mother, Mumtaz Bibi, a local pastor conducted the wedding ceremony at the church. Shortly after, Noreen left for China with her husband. For some time, she remained in contact with her parents and shared that she was living a happy life. However, two years after the marriage, she returned to her parents’ home in Pakistan.

She told them that her husband’s behavior had changed and he was no longer treating her well, which is why she did not want to go back. Noreen’s father, Maqsood Masih, had a slightly different view; he claimed that Noreen had contracted tuberculosis and had returned to Pakistan for treatment.Currently, Noreen Kanwal is living with her parents in Pakistan along with her three-year-old daughter, Shen Roger.On December 1, 2023, Noreen was shot dead by her brother Salman. According to her mother, Mumtaz Bibi, he was provoked by what people in the neighborhood were saying and opened fire on Noreen, killing her. Local residents claim that Noreen’s brother and other family members were pressuring her to return to China to live with her husband, but she was unwilling to go back — which ultimately led to her being killed.After her murder, Noreen’s Chinese husband — the one she had refused to return to — took custody of their daughter, Shen Roger, and moved back to China with the help of the police. Mumtaz Bibi stated that they had agreed to Noreen’s marriage to the Chinese man hoping it would secure her a better future, but little did they know that the marriage would become a curse for her.Residents of Dijkot, Tariq Masih and Babar Masih, said that Noreen’s family had married her off out of greed for money. Besides Noreen, dozens of other Christian girls have also been married to Chinese men. Some of these women have returned to Pakistan and remarried.

like Noreen Kanwal, who marry under pressure or temptation, often find themselves with no way out. Noreen is not the only one who had to embrace death to escape such a tormenting marriage. Earlier, Abigail from Peshawar also chose to end her life by hanging herself to escape a similar ordeal.Some girls are still trapped in China. The issue of Chinese men marrying Pakistani girls first came to light in 2019, when nearly 200 Christian girls in Faisalabad were reportedly married to Chinese nationals. After this large-scale revelation, the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) launched an operation and arrested not only the Chinese men involved in these marriages but also the pastors who were officiating the weddings. As a result of this crackdown, such marriages stopped for a while. However, no one thought about the girls who were forced or lured into these marriages.Even now, hundreds of girls who married Chinese men are still in China. Among them is Samiyah, the sister of Noreen Kanwal, who was recently murdered in Dijkot. While Noreen is no longer alive, her sister remains in China. The stories of girls who have returned from China reveal the hardships they endured. Jameel Khan Mayo, the former Deputy Director of the FIA who led the crackdown, made horrifying revelations about how these illegally married girls were trafficked abroad, and in some cases, their uteruses and other organs were removed and sold on the black market.

Christian leader Pastor Imran Sadiq says that such marriages between Christian girls and Chinese men are illegal in every sense because, according to Christian belief, a pastor cannot solemnize a marriage involving someone who does not share the Christian faith.
The mysterious death of Samiyah David from Gujranwala is also believed to be a consequence of such marriages. Dozens of girls from Faisalabad are struggling to escape the torment caused by marriages that were arranged under pressure or due to financial temptation. Some of these girls have approached the courts to seek divorce, while others returned from China and remarried without getting formally divorced.Maryam Bibi is one such example. After returning from China, she married her cousin and now has two children. Maryam says she cannot even describe the torment she endured after the marriage. She was subjected to physical abuse, kept hungry and thirsty, and was forced to work in the fields. She calls marrying out of greed a nightmare—something she never wants to think about again.Natasha, daughter of Lal Masih from Faisalabad, has also approached the court for a divorce. She says her parents married her off in the hope of escaping poverty, but the outcome was the opposite. Now, even their relatives avoid them, and society no longer looks at them with respect. Girls who marry under pressure or greed are now suffering in two ways: they’ve lost their dignity, and they also face blame, taunts, and judgment from both family and society.