A report published on Wednesday stated that the treatment of women and girls from Christian minorities in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia constitutes a "human rights catastrophe."
The report was compiled by the British branch of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which launched a petition calling for action to end the sexual enslavement of Christian women.
The text was presented during an online event chaired by human rights activist Caroline Cox. Among the speakers were Michele Clark and Fiona Bruce, the UK Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief.
The report, which includes case studies from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Pakistan, stated that "evidence suggests the coronavirus pandemic has provided the ideal breeding ground for acts of sexual violence."
"Research has shown that vulnerable converts locked down with their families are at greater risk of widespread abuse, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region," it noted.
Also read | An Italian ethics committee authorizes the first assisted suicide
The report argued that "cases of systemic abduction, sexual violence, forced marriage, and conversion of Christian women in countries like Nigeria, Iraq, and Syria can be classified as genocidal in nature."
It also focused on Nigeria, which was controversially removed from this year's U.S. State Department watchlist concerning countries violating religious freedom.
The study revealed numerous cases of forced abduction and exploitation in Egypt; in these cases, Christians represent 95% of the women and girls captured by Islamists in Nigeria, and that 70% of those forcibly converted and married in Pakistan are Christian.
ACN described the report as "the first of its kind to focus on the phenomenon of young women who are seized because their gender and religion make them vulnerable to kidnappings and assaults."
Michele Clark, a human rights activist who has studied the plight of Coptic Christian women, told ACN on November 24 that the report was important because it revealed the scale of the problem.
"I think the report makes a very important contribution because it expands the attention given to these abductions, forced conversions, forced marriages, from reports on a single country to a much broader and more comprehensive perspective," said Clark, a retired adjunct professor of international affairs at George Washington University, in a telephone interview.
"We can understand this and realize: 'Wow, this is not happening in just one place.'
This is happening in many places around the world. It is happening in the Middle East. It is happening in Central Asia. It is happening in Africa. And so, shedding light on the extent of the problems is a very important contribution."
Of course, the so-called "Christian" contingent of movements like NousToutes prefers to claim that the Church mistreats women rather than targeting the real problems. Thankfully, genuine women and associations are acting to try to save all our sisters in the world.
The report: HEAR HER CRIES