Across the world, girls and young women from Christian families are forced into sexual slavery and religious conversion.
This is one of the most underreported examples of the persecution of Christians, usually in Muslim-majority countries with significant Christian popu-lations, such as Egypt and Paki-stan.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) documented first-hand accounts of kidnappings, forced marriages and forced conversions in its Hear Her Cries report, pre-sented in London on Nov. 24.
The pontifical charity was marking Red Wednesday, an annual event meant to draw atten-tion to the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.
The report noted that examining the topic of sexual violence and persecution of faith minorities is far from strai-ghtforward.
“While there is growing consensus about the need for research into the nature and scale of religious and sexual coercion of women, the challenges of setting about the task have been consistently highlighted in studies on the subject.”