Pakistani Girl Forced to Abort by Parents2 min read

A Pakistani girl, living in Italy, has been brought back to her country by her parents, where she was tied for 8 hours before being forced to have an abortion.

She is now safe and brought back to Italy where authorities are taking care of her, after liberating her in Islamabad, thanks to the help of Pakistani authorities.

Farah is a 19-year-old girl who decided with her boyfriend to keep the baby.

She should have given birth at the end of the summer, after her final high school exams.

She was tricked to go back by her parents using the excuse of her brother’s wedding.

The tragedy happened in the same days of the controversial campaign against abortion launched by CitizenGO.

CitizenGO is a Spanish organisation, battling social injustices.

Judging by their campaign and their website, they promote pro-life ideals and they are supportive of the “traditional family”, those started by a father and a mother.

Recently they started hanging #STOPABORTO (Stop Abortion) posters in Rome.

The black and white photo, picturing a pregnant woman holding her belly, says “Abortion is the first cause of femicide in the world”.

This is deeply problematic as it doesn’t take into account the pain of those who suffered because of domestic abuse and femicide.

Not only women, but in the case of a family, also the children.

Femicide is directly linked to sexism and patriarchal structure that does not respect women’s rights.

In the same way, denying the right to abort is denying women a basic right.

If we should learn anything from Farah’s story, it is that a woman’s body is hers and hers only.

It is up to the woman to choose whether to continue or not with the pregnancy.

Abortion is not ending a life, as it is done before the foetus is a fully formed human being.

Just because abortion is not legal in some countries, it doesn’t mean that women should stop aborting.

But those who want to, will do it illegally, putting their lives at risk, or moving somewhere where it is legal and not all women can afford travelling.

Abortion should be a choice and it should never be forced.

We should legalise it to help every woman, but also implement talks about unplanned pregnancies and provide help to women in need that can not afford or do not have enough support to go forward with the pregnancy, if they wished to.