The choice to marry (or not) must be a consensual and autonomous decision, as must be the practice of faith.
KARACHI: The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) upholds every adult Pakistani’s constitutional right to contract and/or terminate marriage by her/his free will and without pressure, force or coercion of any sort. In cases of inter-faith marriages, the WAF condemns the use of force or coercion against the prospective couple towards conversion to another faith, as a pre-condition to marriage.
Also, the WAF calls upon all state parties and members of the communities involved, to recognise and extend the right to the wife/husband to revert to their original faith if she/he should wish to, at any stage. The choice to marry (or not) must be a consensual and autonomous decision, as must be the practice of faith. It is an abrogation of basic human rights to use the exercise of choice in these personal matters as tools of political leverage by any ethnic or religious community.
Women’s Action Forum
Published in The Express Tribune, April 1st, 2012.
