Religious Conversions in Pakistan: Empirical Evidence from Sindh

Abstract

Pakistan is often discussed at domestic and international forums in the context of its treatment of the religious minorities and more particularly the alleged forced religious conversions to Islam. This paper is in continuation of a recent report by the author that discussed the narrative of systematic and organized forced religious conversions in Pakistan to show that it is not supported by any data or verifiable evidence. The paper presents preliminary results of the fieldwork that collected data from the province of Sindh in Pakistan. The data gathered comprises audio-visual interviews from a cross-section of the society, official documents, and data of converts. While the study could not find cases of forced conversion, it notes that the force is used against the neo-converts through various means. It identifies 13 push and pull factors that contribute to religious conversions in the context of the area of this study. It also looks into the widespread perception of only women being converted, or the age of converted individuals generally being below 18 years.