MEPs are urging Ireland’s Mairead McGuinness, the European Unionʼs special envoy for Freedom of Religion, to engage with Pakistan over forced religious conversions as the countryʼs Constitutional Court is due to hear an appeal on behalf of 13-year-old, Christian Maria Shahbaz.

Maria was abducted in July 2025 at the age of 12 and was allegedly forced to convert to Islam before being married off to a man two decades her senior.

A review seeks to overturn an earlier judgment that left Maria with the man accused of abducting, converting, and marrying her.

There were 210 such cases involving Christian girls documented between 2019 and 2025 with many victims’ ages falsified in official records while police, local officials, and religious figures facilitated fraudulent marriage and conversion documents.

Speaking at a conference last week, Slovak MEP, Miriam Lexmann, said she had recently met with McGuinness and urged her to “make this a key priority for the coming months and coming years.”

Carmen Correas López of human rights law firm, ADF International, said they are working to arrange a September meeting with the special envoy to discuss the case and broader concerns about the persecution of Christians.