Congressional Briefing to Address Forced Religious Conversions and Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls

Ending impunity of forced religious conversions and sexual exploitation of religious minorities to be discussed during Congressional briefing on June 11th. WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, June 9, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The briefing co-sponsored by Jubilee Campaign, Coptic Solidarity and the Canadian Yazidi Association, representing diverse faiths and ethnic groups, will be headlined by United States Commissioner on International Religious Freedom, Stephen Schneck. Keynote statements will be provided by Congressman Jim McGovern and Congressman Brad Sherman.

“Gendered Persecution: Targets of Forced Religious Conversion”
Date: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 PM (EST)
Location: Longworth HOB, Room 1539

The objective of the Congressional briefing is to bring attention to this religious freedom and women and girl’s rights issue that too often is forgotten due to its overlap with multiple rights and freedoms. The goal is to provide Members of Congress, advocates, and the public with the information and the tools to understand and effectively address the impunity surrounding forced religious conversions and sexual violence and exploitation of religious and ethnic minority women and girls in geographic contexts in which sharia law is allowed to run parallel and override domestic laws.

On the distinguished panellists of speakers, Sonja Dahlmans will be sharing about Coptic Solidarity’s groundbreaking report, “Hidden Crimes, Public Deception: The Epidemic of Abductions and Forced Disappearance of Coptic women and Girls.” It documents the grooming of Coptic women and girls in Egypt and raises concern with the close collaboration between the state security apparatus and Islamic institutions to prevent contact between the women and girls and their families after disappearing.

Speaking on Iraq, Jamileh Naso with the Canadian Yazidi Association, will discuss ongoing efforts to achieve justice for the Yazidi victims of genocid They still face significant challenges, “Nearly a decade after the genocide began, the Yazidi community in Iraq still faces ongoing challenges: over 300,000 Yazidis living in displacement camps under inhumane conditions. More than 2,700 women and children remain in ISIS captivity, the Sinjar region has seen negligible reconstruction, security issues severely limit the possibility of return, and the significant harm to Yazidi cultural and religious heritage,” she shares.

Joseph Jansen, minority rights activist from Pakistan, will be sharing the plight of the girl child victims of forced religious conversion and sexual exploitation in Pakistan. He recently returned from a trip there and is currently working to secure safe houses for families who have fled bonded slavery, slavery which often includes sexual exploitation of the women and girls and forced religious conversions.

Hulda Fahmi
Jubilee Campaign
+1 703-503-2260
email us here

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