Aasiya Bibi - sentenced to death by hanging for her faith
From Charisma News: Here
For more than three years, Christians
around the world have been praying for Aasiya Noreen, also known as Aasiya
Bibi. As the first woman ever to be given the death penalty under
Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, the mother of five highlights the
injustice of Pakistan’s legal system and marginalizing of the Christian
minority.
For her own safety, Open Doors
partners in Pakistan have been able to give out little information to those who
ask questions and want to help her. Aasiya’s family has been forced into hiding
due to security concerns. It still can only be confirmed that she is in prison
and has little or no contact with others. Any lawyer who wants to take up her
case puts his life at risk. Also, he might put Aasiya’s life further at risk as
well as her family members.
Aasiya is one of more than 100
million Christians who face persecution in more than 60 countries around
the world simply because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Seventy percent
of the world’s 6.8 billion people live in countries with high or some
restrictions on religion, according to a study by the Pew Research Forum on
Religion & Public Life. The persecution and lack of religious freedom
often leave believers feeling like they suffer alone.
From the Open Doors website: Here
The following is an update on Aasiya
Bibi- a Pakistani Christian who has been in prison for the past four years,
accused of blaspheming the Islamic prophet Mohammed. This is an act punishable
by death in Pakistan. Please take a moment to read her update and pray for
Aasiya and all the Christians in Pakistan.
Day after day, Aasiya would try to
exemplify the woman that many know as the Proverbs 31 wife. The Pakistani wife
and mother would awaken early in the morning and prepare breakfast for her
husband and their daughters to send them to school. She would make sure their
uniforms were clean and ironed, so when they went to school they would not be
humiliated and made fun of by the other students who looked down on them for
being lower caste Christians.
Once the girls had their breakfast
and made their way to school, she would go to the well to collect water. From
the moment she left the front door of her home and walked through the lush
green fields toward the well, she would hear women sneering and muttering as
she walked past. She would avoid eye contact, though some days she was tempted
to speak back.
At the well she often faced the
taunts of others who asked her why she came to the well. “Issai Choori”
they would call her, which means “Christian low caste sweeper woman.”
“Don’t come here to get water. You contaminate
it and make it impossible for us to use the well,” they would say to her. Day
after day she asked God for strength, not letting their comments and insults
stop her from trying to do her best to care for her husband and children.
It was harvest season in 2009 when
Aasiya went to see if she could be hired to work in the fields. It would make
some extra money, as well as get some grain for the season ahead. This was
normal practice for women in the village.
But that day would prove to be the
worst day of her life. Arriving in the field, she faced more insults and
taunts. Some commented on her being a Christian– believing Jesus was God, and
being a lover of the West.
“They screamed at her and told her
she was a sweeper woman and did not belong in the village,” says a close
relative of Aasiya who does not want to be named. “That was 4 years ago.
We still do not know what the fate of our sister will be, and whether there is
any use in going back to our homes and trying to restart life in the old
communities. We do not know if God will answer the prayers of her family, to
allow her to come home to us, and allow all of us to live a normal life again,”
the relative.
On that day in June 2009, Aasiya had
borne all the insults she could. Perhaps it had been one of those mornings when
she had got out of bed after hardly any sleep at night, sleepless from worrying
about her girls and their future in a hostile world where Christians were so
discriminated against. Whatever was going on in Aasiya’s mind at the time, she
obviously knew what she believed. She spoke that day with boldness, quite
clearly at the end of her resources.
“She did what we tell one another
never to do,” says a pastor from the area. ”She mentioned their prophet!”
The pastor’s face clouds as he remembers hearing the account over and again
from the people in the surrounding areas. “She asked them a dangerous question,
and put herself at the risk of facing the worst fate any Christian should
carefully avoid. She asked the people who were taunting her : ‘My Jesus gave
His life for me and saved me from sin. What did your prophet do for you?’”
That day was the last time Aasiya was
free. “Perhaps even as the words tumbled out of her mouth, she knew she was
taking a huge risk. But we will never know that, and it makes little difference
if she was remorseful or not. This is Pakistan. Here we have hardly any rights.
Here we are forbidden from expressing our opinions and saying anything about
Islam unless it is positive,” says Aasiya’s relative.
Ever since June 19, 2009, Aasiya has
been locked up, accused of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammad, which made
her a criminal in the sight of the law. She is still experiencing the injustice
and hopelessness of the judicial system of Pakistan, Christians are guilty
until proved innocent, and where innocence was not likely to ever be proved.
At the time of her arrest, Aasiya
Bibi was first ordered by the magistrate to physical remand for 5 days, when
she was mistreated by the police. She later stated, “When I was arrested, I was
assaulted and harassed by the police. I was in a state of shock for many days.”
Aasiya stands accused of blasphemy
under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which calls for death or life
imprisonment for defiling the name of the prophet Mohammad. Her trial verdict
came in November 2010, when the lower court found her guilty and gave her the
death sentence.
Although Pakistan’s laws of evidence
strictly forbid “hearsay” evidence and require direct oral testimony, the two
witnesses who were presented before the Magistrate Court in Aasiya Bibi’s case
were not even present at the time of the alleged incident. Thus they neither
heard it, nor did they see anything on which their evidence was based. So
Aasiya Bibi was convicted by the court on such fabricated evidence.
Aasiya Bibi has lodged an appeal to
the Lahore High Court against this judgment. Lawyers involved in the case
remain confident that the testimonies upon which the prosecution based its case
will not stand up before the more impartial and professional High Court of
Lahore. “The magistrate courts are in fact subjected to political influences
and pressure from Islamic fundamentalists,” they state. “These things do not
happen in the upper echelons of justice.”
Legal experts expect the appeals
process to take another year, during which her safety would best be ensured if
she remains in the jail in Sheikhupura, where she is allowed to meet her family
once a week.
