A child with dreams is not a threat to a faith

By Muhammad Ali

When any sane person looks at a child, the feeling is almost universal — enchantment. Their eyes are bright with wonder, their laughter untouched by the harshness of the world. Our first instinct is not to burden them, but to shield them; not to chain them, but to give them wings. We wish them joy, safety, and the space to grow into lives of meaning, love, and dignity.

But among us walk monsters.

Men who do not see children as beings to be protected, but as objects — for pleasure, for control, for power. Men who seek to marry children. Yes, marry them — stripping them of childhood, agency, and future. And when these men rally against child marriage laws, they are not defending tradition. They are defending a sickness. They are defending the right to harm, to destroy, to embed their cruelty into the very fabric of our society.

This isn’t about faith. It isn’t about culture. It’s about abuse, domination, and the calculated destruction of innocence.

A Legacy of Suffering

I still remember the call I made to an Ahmadi friend — his voice trembling — after their place of worship was attacked. He told me how his nephew, barely a child, had to be hidden in a gutter to survive. That is the kind of terror that lingers in this land — a world where children are forced to hide from those who claim to be God’s men.

And then there was the call to my Ismaili friend, weeping after the Safora bus attack, where children were killed — children, on their way to a school trip. What do you say to a mother whose child never came home because of the hate someone dressed in holiness carried in their heart?

And then… Zainab.

That little girl, whose only crime was trying to walk home. Her journey should’ve ended in the arms of her family — not in a dumpster. What kind of country allows its daughters to be hunted and discarded by predators? What kind of religion tolerates the abuse of children in madrassahs while the state — powerful against the weak, but toothless against the wicked — watches in silence?

We do not lack laws. We lack will. We lack soul. And we lack the courage to stand up to those who weaponize religion to feed their lust and cruelty.

What the World Has Learned

There is a reason child marriage is outlawed in most of the world — not as a Western conspiracy, but as a moral and scientific imperative. In the West, child marriage was once legal, often justified through twisted religious or economic logic. But with time came understanding:

Medical science proved what instinct already knew: a child’s body is not built for marriage or motherhood. The female pelvis, the reproductive system, even bone density — these are not fully developed until adulthood. Childbirth at such a young age can lead to fistulas, hemorrhaging, and death.

The prefrontal cortex, which governs decision-making and impulse control, doesn’t fully mature until the mid-20s. A child cannot meaningfully consent to a lifelong partnership, let alone to bearing children or enduring abuse disguised as marital duty.

Psychological studies show that girls forced into early marriage suffer higher rates of depression, trauma, and suicide. They are pulled out of school, cut off from peers, and isolated from the world — effectively erased.

Faith Without Humanity Is Nothing

To the clerics who rage against the Child Marriage Bill — I ask you: What kind of faith is it that thirsts for the blood of children? What religion demands that the dreams of girls be traded for bloodstained bedsheets?

If your faith requires you to marry a child, then your faith is not holy. It is hollow.

Religion, if anything, should be the defender of the helpless, the refuge of the oppressed. If your version of God asks you to look at a nine-year-old girl and see a wife instead of a daughter — then it is not God you are worshipping, but your own depravity.

We Must Not Stay Silent

I write this not because I expect to change the world overnight. But because silence would be a crime. If nothing else, I will know I stood — even insignificantly — on the right side of history.

I dream of a Pakistan where Zainabs walk home safely, where children are not abused in madrassahs, and where the state finally finds the courage to stand up to the wolves in robes. I dream of a country where orphans read books instead of hiding in gutters. Where daughters are not sacrificed to false notions of piety. Where minorities — Christians, Ahmadis, Shias, Hindus, Hazaras — are not hunted for their beliefs. Where no child is ever forced into motherhood by force, law, or fear.

Let the monsters rage. Let them wave their flags and scream their slogans.

We will stand taller.
We will stand together.
And we will not let them marry our children.

Muhammad Ali uses various mediums, including music and writing, to articulate his thoughts.