Garnett Genuis

Mr. Speaker, Claims · 123 wordspersecution based on religious belief is a significant and growing problem around the world. Women and girls from religious minority communities are increasingly at risk of a kind of double persecution known as gender-specific religious persecution, where they are targeted for both their faith and their gender. Gender-specific religious persecution can include abduction, sexual assault, forced marriage and forced conversion, along with other abuses. Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Pakistani Christian girl, was abducted, forcibly converted and subjected to so-called forced marriage.¹ The Pakistani court ruled that the marriage was legal.² Amany, an 18-year-old Coptic Christian woman living in upper Egypt, was kidnapped on her way to school as part of a coordinated effort to have her forcibly converted and married outside her community.³ Reasoning · 17 wordsThe often hidden plight of women and girls who face this double persecution must not be ignored. The ask · 31 wordsCanada’s government should push legal and practical reforms in partner countries to address this issue and ensure that our public service has the knowledge and capacity to address gender-specific religious persecution. Reasoning · 20 wordsThere is a need and an opportunity for our government and our Parliament to champion a response to this issue.