"Called kafir, forced to learn Quran and convert to Islam, every day": Pakistani Hindu woman recounts religious coercion, says brother too was forced to eat beef

Case ID : 30ab02f | Location : Pakistan | Date of Incident : Sat, 24 October, 2026

Case ID : 30ab02f

Pakistan

24 October, 2026

"Called kafir, forced to learn Quran and convert to Islam, every day": Pakistani Hindu woman recounts religious coercion, says brother too was forced to eat beef

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Family claims grooming

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Pakistan, a Hindu girl recounted being pressured to convert to Islam throughout her elementary and middle school years, when she was still a minor. She also described physical abuse against herself and her brother, her brother being forced to consume beef, attempts to mix beef into her food, religious slurs targeting her Hindu identity, and being compelled to study the Quran despite attending a Catholic school. The incident came to light when a video of the young Pakistani Hindu girl went viral on social media. In the undated video, the victim spoke about her experiences as a religious minority in Pakistan and described the religious coercion and discrimination she endured from a young age. Recounting her childhood, the victim stated that during her elementary and middle school years, she was told every single day to convert to Islam. Emphasising the frequency of the pressure, she said, “I am a Pakistani Hindu, and I want to tell you something about my experience to my Muslim friends and to my Hindu friends…When I was little, like in elementary and middle school, I was told every single day to convert to Islam. Every single day. And I can put my hands on Shiv Bhagwan right now. I was told to convert to Islam.” The victim further revealed that she and her brother faced physical abuse and mistreatment because they belonged to a religious minority. Her brother was bullied and forced to eat beef, while she was hit. She also recounted attempts to put beef in her food. Recalling the fear she experienced during that period, she said, “My brother was bullied, I was hit. My brother was forced to eat beef...they would try to put beef in my food too. But I was too smart for that... I didn’t say anything then because I was really scared. We were a minority.” The victim also recalled being called a “Kafir”, a highly offensive and deeply derogatory term used to denigrate non-Muslims. Speaking about how religion was used to express hatred towards communities, she said, “I did learn. Another thing from that experience was that people will use religion to hate on communities because I was also called a Kafir. I don’t care. Yeah, I’m a Kafir. Don’t follow your religion. Don’t like. Do you think I don’t know what a Kafir means?” Despite being a Pakistani Hindu, the victim attended a Catholic school where she was compelled to study the Quran. She explained that she was told she would not pass 10th or 11th grade, or be permitted to sit for the board examinations, if she did not learn it. Describing this experience, she said, “You know, I’m a Pakistani Hindu, so I know about it; I have read the Quran. I know about Islamic teachings. I was in a Catholic school, a Hindu, and I was forced to learn the Quran. And you know why that? Because they said I was not going to pass the 10th grade, 11th grade or get into the board exams.” The victim maintained that she respected the right of others to follow their religion but firmly rejected the idea that she should be compelled to adopt a faith she did not believe in. She emphasised that her familiarity with Islamic teachings did not mean that she would abandon Hinduism. Explaining her position, she said, “Do you think I don’t know your religion? I know your religion. I know its fundamental aspects. I respect that you follow it. But let me make it very clear that I will never, ever follow your religion. And that is how that is the utmost respect. That is utmost respect. I will never follow your religion.” The victim further explained that her rejection of Islamic teachings was a matter of personal belief and that people should be free to follow different religions without coercion. She concluded by highlighting the contradiction between religious teachings against compulsion and the pressure she experienced in Pakistan. In her words, “Because I just don’t believe in anything that is taught there. And that’s fine. People can have different beliefs, right? Religion is not about compulsion. That is one of the things in there. I felt compulsion in that country. So, no, I don’t believe in the fundamental aspects of it.” Concluding her account, the victim emphasised that she was still being asked to convert to Islam in America.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is: Harassment, threat, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. In this case, harassment and threats are rooted in discriminatory grounds that nullify a person’s rights or infringe on their freedom to exercise those rights because of the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision, etc. In several cases, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The other subcategory selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is: Family claims grooming. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts at such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to the existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other primary category selected here is: Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected here is: Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and the tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The other primary category selected is: Hate speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is: Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs, since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus, with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation that cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem from inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith; therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The case was included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because a Pakistani Hindu girl was subjected to relentless pressure to abandon Hinduism from childhood, threatened with academic failure to compel her to study the Quran, and humiliated for her religious identity, while her brother was bullied and forced to eat beef. The victim was a minor when she was told every single day during her elementary and middle school years to convert to Islam. She was threatened that she would not pass her 10th grade or gain access to board examinations unless she learned the Quran. The intention was to exploit her vulnerability as a child and use her academic future as leverage to force her to abandon Hinduism. Such relentless pressure was used to inflict psychological distress, instil fear around retaining her faith, and make her education appear conditional on religious compliance. At a formative stage of life, when a child depended on adults and educational institutions for guidance and security, these threats weaponised her future against her freedom of belief. Furthermore, the victim was compelled to learn the Quran despite being a Hindu student at a Catholic school. The demand was not simply exposure to another religion; it was enforced through threats to her academic progression. This coercion sought to override her religious choice by making compliance with Islamic instruction a condition of educational success. It denied her the freedom to choose which religious teachings to follow and put her in a position where refusing religious demands threatened her academic future. The victim was also called a “Kafir”, a derogatory term used to denigrate non-Muslims. The use of this slur singled her out for being Hindu and reinforced the pressure to reject her own faith. Rather than respecting her religious identity, the perpetrators used a term that demeaned her as a non-Muslim, adding religious humiliation to the daily coercion she faced as a child from a minority community. The use of the term “Kafir” was particularly significant because it explicitly framed the victim’s Hindu identity as the basis of the hostility directed against him. Such religiously charged abuse, combined with threats of failing exams and forcing Quran and beef, amounted to an attempt to terrorise the victim into surrendering. Muslim perpetrators, due to indoctrination by Islamic theology, which advocates that all non-Muslims (referred to as kafirs) are inferior and subject to subjugation unless they convert to Islam or live under Islamic rule (dhimmitude). These ideas are not mere abstractions; they manifest in actions where non-Muslims, especially Hindus, are seen as targets for religious domination, coercion, or humiliation. This theological framework fosters an "us versus them" mindset, in which any assertion of Hindu identity or religious freedom is seen not only as undesirable but as a threat to Islamic supremacy. As a result, perpetrators who are shaped by such teachings feel justified, even morally obligated, to harass, suppress, or violently attack Hindus, particularly when Hindus assert their religious rights. Such acts, therefore, are not isolated but driven by a broader ideological hostility towards Hindus as non-believers and reflect an attempt to impose religious dominance. The attack therefore carried a clear anti-Hindu character, particularly given that the targeted premises belonged to the only Hindu shopkeeper within the mosque complex. The mistreatment also involved physical abuse and the forced consumption of beef. The victim stated that she was hit, while her brother was bullied and forced to eat beef. They also tried to put beef in her food. For Hindus, the cow holds sacred significance, and forcing a Hindu to consume beef violates deeply held religious beliefs. Furthermore, forcing her brother to eat beef and attempting to make her consume it subjected the Hindu siblings to humiliation that directly violated their religious beliefs. This conduct went beyond ordinary bullying: it imposed an act that struck at their religious convictions and further intimidated them because of their Hindu identity. The physical abuse and the treatment of both siblings demonstrated how the hostility affected their dignity, bodily autonomy and freedom to practise their faith. Such acts are carried out by Muslim perpetrators due to indoctrination by Islamic theology, which advocates that all non-Muslims (referred to as kafirs) are inferior and subject to subjugation unless they convert to Islam or live under Islamic rule (dhimmitude). These ideas are not mere abstractions; they manifest in actions where non-Muslims, especially Hindus in India, are seen as targets for religious domination, coercion, or humiliation. This theological framework fosters an "us versus them" mindset, in which any assertion of Hindu identity or religious freedom is seen not only as undesirable but as a threat to Islamic supremacy. As a result, perpetrators who are shaped by such teachings feel justified, even morally obligated, to harass, suppress, or violently attack Hindus, particularly when Hindus assert their religious rights or resist conversion. As a result, Muslim perpetrators invoke such doctrines to justify coercive attempts to convert non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, portraying conversion as a means of abandoning Kufr (a state of disbelief in Islam or disbelief in Islam) and attaining salvation. Such acts, therefore, are not isolated but driven by a broader ideological hostility towards Hindus as non-believers and reflect an attempt to impose religious dominance. Since this case was also not a random, isolated incident of grooming of a Hindu girl but a premeditated attack motivated by bias and hatred against the Hindu community, which is a defining feature of hate crimes, this has been added to the tracker. In this case, it is also important to explain the dynamics of religious conversion in Pakistan. It is true that many religious conversions worldwide are completely voluntary and driven by an individual's own free will and a change in faith. However, religious conversions in Pakistan have an especially predatory nature. Pakistan, being an Islamic nation, harbours specific animosity towards non-Muslims, especially Hindus. Human Rights reports have detailed how minor Hindu girls are abducted by Muslim men and forcefully converted to Islam, then married off to their abductors. Hindus are widely persecuted on the basis of their religion. There are instances where minors, who were forced to convert after being kidnapped, were handed over to their abductors even by the courts of Pakistan. Temples are desecrated and razed to the ground, religious symbols destroyed, and Hindus killed merely for displaying their faith. Disclaimer: The victims in this case were recorded as minors since, as per the report, the victims were minors when they were initially pressured to convert to Islam. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident date based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when the incident was reported by the media. The available sources do not specify the exact date the incident began. Therefore, 25 October 2026, when it was reported in the media, has been selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.