A brick kiln worker’s forced conversion to Islam in Pakistan’s national database has left his five children unable to have their Christian faith designated on their national identity cards, his son said, according to Morning Star News.
Sufyan Masih, who works at a kiln in Phoolnagar, Kasur District in Punjab Province, said that his father, Sadiq Masih, was pressured to convert to Islam years ago while indebted to a former employer. The change was later reflected in records maintained by the National Database and Registration Authority, and a second Computerized National Identity Card was issued in the name “Muhammad Sadiq.”
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“Because my father is registered as a Muslim in NADRA, we have been told that we cannot register ourselves as Christians,” Masih said. “We want our documents to show who we truly are, but we are not being allowed to.”
Masih’s father, born in 1976 to Gija Masih, worked for many years at a brick kiln owned by Haji Rana Anwar in the Jatti Umra area of Lahore to support his wife, Rasheeda Masih, who is non-verbal, and their five children.
The family’s financial difficulties intensified about 15 years ago when Rasheeda fell seriously ill.
“My father took a 400,000 Pakistani rupees loan [$1,430] from his employer for her treatment and household expenses,” Masih said.
Debt arrangements are common in Pakistan’s brick kiln sector, where workers often rely on advances from kiln owners to cover living costs between pay cycles. Human rights advocates have long warned that such arrangements can leave workers vulnerable to exploitation and coercion.
‘Under pressure’
“We are poor people. When you take a loan, you become tied,” Masih said. “The pressure was constant. My illiterate father was in a weak position.”
Under that pressure, he said, his father was compelled to convert to Islam and accept a Muslim identity in official records.
“This name was not his choice,” Masih said, referring to the name Muhammad Sadiq on the CNIC. “It was imposed on him because he was financially dependent. He did not change his faith in his heart.”
Masih said the consequences of the change have extended beyond his father. Because children’s registration records are linked to their parents’ data in NADRA’s system, officials have told the family that the children can only be registered as Muslims.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and originally published by Morning Star News.
