By Sardar Mushtaq Gill, Founder, LEAD Ministries — As the founder of LEAD Ministries and an advocate for child rights, I feel compelled to raise urgent alarm about a disturbing global trend: the forced veiling of young girls, which increasingly targets children at an alarmingly early age. This practice represents a form of ideological coercion that can only be described as child radicalization.
At LEAD Ministries, we are observing and documenting cases where children as young as three or four years old—even extending to those aged five, six, seven, and eight—are being compelled to wear the burqa, despite being far too young to understand, choose, or consent to such impositions. This is not religious instruction or moral guidance. It is coercion that prioritizes ideology over a child’s well-being.
This troubling practice is not confined to one region. It is occurring across South Asia, the Middle East, parts of Africa, and within diaspora communities in Europe and North America. By enforcing strict religious dress codes on toddlers and young children, extremist actors normalize control and submission from the earliest stages of life, while undermining the child’s right to personal development, dignity, and freedom of expression.
Sardar Mushtaq Gill, Founder of LEAD Ministries, has personally observed this practice in his own surroundings. He warns that it is happening openly, without any oversight or intervention from local authorities or children’s rights organizations. The lack of accountability allows extremist actors to continue coercing young children into veiling, putting their psychological, emotional, and social well-being at serious risk.
To force little girls to wear the veil or burqa is an act of radicalization of Islam against children. When coercion begins at such a young age, it instills fear, shame, and gender inequality before a child can even form a sense of self. A three- or four-year-old cannot understand modesty, morality, or faith. What is being imposed is not upbringing—it is ideological conditioning.
Human Rights Perspective:
The forced veiling of young girls constitutes a clear violation of international human rights standards, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Children have the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Article 14), and to express their views freely in all matters affecting them (Article 12). Coercing toddlers and young children to wear the burqa or veil infringes upon these rights, denying them the ability to make informed choices about their own beliefs and personal development. Furthermore, such practices can cause psychological harm, reinforce gender inequality, and undermine a child’s dignity, placing responsibility on governments and authorities to intervene and protect children from all forms of ideological or cultural coercion (Articles 2, 18, 19, and 29). The lack of oversight or accountability in these situations represents a serious failure to uphold international child protection obligations.
Some defenders claim that veiling is a parental or cultural right. At LEAD Ministries, we strongly reject this justification when applied to children who are too young to exercise choice. Parental authority does not extend to practices that undermine a child’s dignity, autonomy, and fundamental rights. Culture and tradition must never be used to justify coercion.
This is not an attack on Islam or any religion. Faith, to be meaningful, must be embraced freely and consciously. When religion is imposed through fear, force, or societal pressure—especially on children—it becomes a tool of control, not spiritual guidance.
LEAD Ministries warns governments, international organizations, educators, and religious leaders that failing to address this issue will allow the continued exploitation of children in the name of ideology. Child protection laws must explicitly recognize ideological and religious coercion as a serious form of harm.
Children everywhere deserve innocence, dignity, and the freedom to grow without being burdened by extremist interpretations imposed before they can even speak for themselves. Protecting children from radicalization—of any kind—is a global responsibility that cannot be delayed.
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