She Came Home For Easter. She Left Fearing For Her Life.
A 20-year-old Pakistani Christian woman received a handwritten death threat on April 2. By Easter Sunday, her alleged attacker was under arrest. Her story is one of hundreds.
Laiba Javed had simply come home to celebrate Easter.
The 20-year-old Christian woman had traveled from her job in Lahore back to her ancestral village of Chak 6/11-L near Harappa in Pakistan’s Sahiwal District to be with family for the holiday. What she received instead was a handwritten note — delivered at gunpoint by a former schoolmate named Rehman Irfan, accompanied by two armed men. The note gave her a deadline of April 15. Convert to Islam. Agree to marry him. Or be killed.
“He handed her a letter at gunpoint stating that he loved her and would go to any extent to marry her after converting her,” her uncle Imran Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Laiba immediately told her family. They went to police. Officers initially advised the family to wait — it was Easter weekend.
What Happened On Easter Sunday
Tensions escalated on April 5 when a cousin of the suspect allegedly disrupted a sunrise Easter procession in the village. The family contacted police again. This time, officers responded — raiding the cousin’s home and finding Irfan there as well. He was taken into custody and charged with issuing threats.
The arrest brought some relief. But not peace.
“We fear he could be released on bail and continue to harass us,” Masih said. Laiba has since left the village. Her mother died several years ago. Her father works as a farm laborer. She is, by every measure, vulnerable — and her family knows it.
This Is Not An Isolated Story
Laiba’s case is alarming. It is also, tragically, not unusual.
According to a study by the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice, at least 515 cases of abduction and forced conversion involving minority women and girls were reported in Pakistan between 2021 and 2025. Christian girls accounted for 31 percent of those cases — 160 documented victims. More than half of all victims were between 14 and 18 years old. Approximately 20 percent were under 14.
In Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, Pakistan ranked eighth among the countries where Christians face the most severe persecution globally — citing systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, and weak law enforcement as primary factors.
A Court Ruling That Made Things Worse
The fear surrounding Laiba’s case did not emerge in a vacuum. On February 11, 2026, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court upheld the marriage of a 13-year-old Christian girl, Maria Shahbaz, to a 30-year-old Muslim man who had allegedly abducted her. The court ruled that Islamic law permits Muslim men to marry women from Ahl-e-Kitab — the People of the Book, a category that includes Christians.
Ejaz Alam Augustine, a member of the Punjab Assembly and former provincial minister for human rights and minority affairs, did not mince words about what that ruling has done on the ground.
“This judgment has created a sense of impunity,” Augustine said. “Many now believe it has put the security of Christian girls at greater risk.”
What The Global Church Should Know
Laiba Javed came home for Easter — the celebration of resurrection, of life conquering death. She was met with a death threat instead. Her alleged attacker is in custody, but her family’s fear is real and their concern about bail is legitimate. She is displaced from her own village. The system that should protect her has a documented history of failing women exactly like her.
This is the reality for Christian minorities in Pakistan right now. Not in the abstract. Not in a statistic. In a handwritten note. Delivered at gunpoint. On Easter weekend.
The global church can respond in three ways. Pray for Laiba, her family, and the hundreds of women whose cases never make international headlines. Stay informed through organizations like Open Doors and Morning Star News, who document these cases when no one else will. And give to organizations working on the ground to provide legal support, safe housing, and advocacy for persecuted minorities in Pakistan and beyond.
Her name is Laiba Javed. She is 20 years old. And she deserves to be known.
Sources: Christian Daily International – Morning Star News | Morning Star News | Acts Social / Christian Daily | Open Doors 2026 World Watch List (via Christian Daily)
Faith Signal — All allegations in this report are sourced directly from named outlets and named individuals. Rehman Irfan has been charged but not convicted.
Faith Signal | April 2026