A Mother’s Devotion
Nagina Younus with her daughter Huma Younus four years after Huma’s abduction. Photo courtesy of Nagina Younus.
Nagina Younus traveled June 29 from her home region of Karachi, Pakistan to the Punjab region to rescue her daughter Huma Younus. On July 18, Nagina notified Lucerna Lux Media that she had her daughter back after four long years.
After years of abuse, Huma is now home with her family, but the path of healing will take time, both medically and spiritually. For the safety of the family, the details of Huma’s release were not provided.
My involvement in the Younus case began in March 2020, when I learned Huma had been abducted the previous fall. I produced a series of video reports for a Catholic media publication in the hope of raising awareness for people to speak out against the atrocities in Pakistan.
Huma’s case was my first, but not the last, and her story is not unique. Huma left her home October 10, 2019 and was abducted by Abdul Jabbar. Huma was 14-years-old at the time while Jabbar was in his 20s.
When Huma’s family sought help from the court system, the courts sided with Jabbar for one simple reason: Huma was a Christian and Jabbar forced her to convert to Islam and “married” her. Under apostasy laws, Muslims are forbidden from renouncing Islam and the sham marriage was validated by the government.
By the summer of 2020, Huma was pregnant, confined to one room in Jabbar’s house, and routinely abused by her so-called husband. After the courts finally settled that Huma would remain with her abductor, the story ended - at least from a journalistic perspective.
It was this case along with others that taught me the apathy in journalism. Without a big update to a story, the condition of the subject matters little to editors.
Huma Younus at her baptism(R) and with her mother and sister(L) before her abduction.
I pushed for our ostensibly Catholic company to engage in fundraising and advocacy for girls like Huma, who faced regular persecution for following Christ. My efforts were rebuffed.
I did what I could on my own. I wired money a few times to the Younus family so that their younger daughter could go to a private school - so she could be out of regular contact with Muslims who may wish to abduct her too.
However, my integrity would not allow me to remain with the company I was with (for this and other reasons) and so I left to do what I could to help persecuted Christians. I spent five months with Armenian Christians in the Republic of Artsakh and am now back in school at Sam Houston State University for a Journalism degree.
The business model of media needs to change. Nowadays, any person with a phone can take video of an event and report on it. The system of reporting on people’s hardships, without seeking to remedy the harm, is parasitic and cannot continue.
Huma’s story did not matter to my supervisors, but Huma mattered to me. I didn’t join a media company to build up subscribers or get “likes” and “comments” on my stories. I want people of good will to learn about events taking place in the world and then do what they can to act.
Huma is now 18-years-old. Her education has been stunted to her 14-year-old development and she has suffered four years of rape and other trauma. Huma’s mother Nagina has gone into debt to pay for lawyers and now the medical and educational care Huma will need.
If you are willing to help the Younus family cover their expenses, email treyblanton@lucernaluxmedia.com and I can provide banking information for you to aid them.
