TEHRAN: Iranian police have rescued a pregnant Pakistani woman who was allegedly taken to Iran illegally and forced into marriage by a Pakistani man.
The rescue followed a video appeal sent by the woman to Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori through her family, in which she pleaded for immediate help. In the message, she said she had been unlawfully married and warned that she would take her own life if assistance did not arrive within days.
The woman, an orphan and the mother of an almost one-year-old daughter, is four months pregnant with her second child. Acting on the appeal, the Sindh governor contacted officials at the Iranian Foreign Ministry and held a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam. Following these efforts, Iranian police traced and recovered the woman, placing her in protective custody.
Governor Tessori later informed the family that he had requested Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran, Mudassir Tipu, to arrange her return to Karachi by air. He also offered to personally bear all travel and related expenses.
The woman lost her father 16 years ago and her mother six years ago and is the youngest among her siblings. Financial hardship forced her to abandon her education. She previously lived in Nishtar Colony, Latifabad, Hyderabad, and according to her family, she went missing around two and a half years ago.
Her brother said the family first received a call on August 14, 2023, from an unknown Iranian number, in which a man claimed he had married her. Subsequent attempts to contact the caller failed, and the family grew suspicious that she had been abducted. Later information suggested that a local individual may have facilitated her movement to another woman, who arranged her forced marriage.
An FIR was registered at a local police station on September 18, 2023, but despite efforts, the woman could not be traced. Documents later obtained by the family, including copies of an unverified birth certificate and marriage certificate, raised further concerns. The records contained discrepancies in her name, her father’s details, and her residential address. The marriage was reportedly solemnised on September 10, 2023, about a month after she had disappeared.
Over the past eight months, the woman occasionally managed to contact her family using borrowed phones, describing her harsh living conditions in Kushk-e-Nar city of Iran’s Hormozgan province and repeatedly asking for help. The family said they approached several authorities, including local political representatives, but received no meaningful assistance.
In her final appeal to the Sindh governor, the woman also requested that her message be forwarded to Pakistan’s military leadership if no other help was possible. Following her rescue, her brother expressed profound gratitude, saying the governor’s intervention had saved not only his sister’s life but also the honour of their family.
