As the woman rots away in prison she also has to endure the mockery of speculation about her suffering.
In prison for a glass of water. As the campaign titled “drink a glass of water and post your photo for Asia Bibi” goes viral, the case of the woman falsely accused of blasphemy remains at the centre of international debate. Her death sentence was confirmed by Pakistan’s High Court, which dismissed her appeal on 16 October. The case will now be presented to the Supreme Court by 4 December. The woman has been in prison for five years and is in a terrible state both physically and mentally.
Meanwhile, campaigns in support of Asia Bibi have gathered speed again and in Europe, more and more appeals are being sent to the Italian, French, Spanish and German governments and to the European Union to put pressure on the Pakistani Prime Minister and President, even by placing conditions on financial aid and trade. But exercising pressure has not always had the desired effect and in fact has often proved to be counter-productive. Behind pro-Asia Bibi campaigns there have often been hidden economic interests or political calculations.
Asia Bibi’s inferno began on 14 June five years ago, when the young farm worker from rural Punjab received a hostile reaction from two other female labourers whilst out in the field. The two Muslim women accused her of contaminating a well, making the water “impure” because she was a Christian and had drunk from it. From that moment on, the 44-year-old mother of five (including one disabled child) fell into a never-ending downward spiral: first she was falsely accused of blasphemy after the two women, who were key witnesses at her trial, testified against her, with the backing of the local Imam, Qari Muhammad Saalam. A report was filed against her, she was arrested, interrogated and put on trial in a court of first instance. Even the Jinnah Institute, a prestigious Muslim research centre, named after Pakistan’s founder, said the trial was “tainted by obvious irregularities” and full of holes.
On 8 November 2010 the court of Nankhana announced its verdict, finding Asia guilty. This will go down in the annals of Pakistan’s history as the first time since 1953 – when the first anti-blasphemy laws were passed. The laws got tougher in 1986 under the dictatorship of Zia ul-Haq, who wanted to please Islamist parties – that a woman received the death penalty for committing this crime.
Bibi’s case began receiving enormous international media attention and on 17 even Benedict XVI sent out an appeal expressing his “spiritual closeness to Mrs. Asia Bibi and her family,” asking that “she may be restored to complete freedom,” as soon as possible.
Tension increased in Pakistan with the case bursting onto the political scene. Important figures such as Catholic minister Shahbaz Bhatti and the Punjab’s Muslim governor, Salman Taseer became involved. Both of them defended the woman, met her and wrote a report on her case, which they sent to the then President Ali Zardari. In the midst of the whole debate, Sherry Rehman, a renowned human rights activist presented a bill in Parliament to have the blasphemy law changed.
Radical Islamic groups reacted violently: the two politicians were killed by terrorists in 2011 (Bhatti’s murder remains unpunished and the inquiry reached a dead end), while Ms Rehman’s life was at risk. She was appointed ambassador to the US and soon after left the country. An Imam from Peshawar launched a fatwa and put a bounty on Asia’s head, promising generous compensation to whoever managed to kill the “blasphemous” woman. Asia Bibi became a symbol, the object of a religious dispute in which she has everything to lose, while the truth will always be of secondary importance.
After these painful events, “many doors have closed for Asia Bibi,” Bernard Inayat, a priest from Lahore and Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Review (published in Punjab, Pakistan) explains to Vatican insider. The symbolic importance of the case “is not helping in terms of a solution being found,” he explained.
Paul Bhatti, the brother of the murdered minister who was co-opted Minister for Minorities insisted on the importance of keeping a low profile on the case: “The only way to save Asia is to keep a low profile on the case, passing it off as a legal case like any other, stripping it of any symbolic importance in the battle for freedom.” Europe and the West’s ways, Bhatti said on a number of occasions, albeit valid, are not effective in Pakistan. This is why four years passed between the date of Asia’s first degree sentence and the appeal hearing. Four years of suffering, true, but perhaps they helped cool the air.
It was a failed attempt, however, mostly owing to the fact that organisation upon organisation – Pakistani and foreign – latched onto Asia’s case, ruining the whole plan. The woman became “the goose that laid the golden egg”. Meanwhile, Asia Bibi is rotting away in prison and has to endure painful speculations about her suffering. “Too many NGO’s present themselves as supporters of Asia and her family, launching fund-raisers to collect money which ends up goodness knows where,” Arif, a Catholic activist in Lahore tells Vatican Insider.
There are numerous organisations that claim to be Asia’s supporters. In Pakistan, amongst others, there is the Masihi Foundation, the John Joseph Foundation, the Center for Legal Assistance, Aid and Settlement and Legal Evangelical Association Development. Outside Pakistan there is CitizenGo, Hatze-oir, Release International, Open Doors, Voice of Martyrs, International Christian Concern and the British Pakistani Christian Association. Groups such as Free Asia Bibi and Save Asia Bibi keep on popping up on the web and across social networks. Of these, “only the John Joseph Foundation has been offering steady support to Asia’s family since 2009,” says Joseph Nadeem of the Renaissance Education Foundation, which is ensuring Asia’s children continue their education in Lahore.
The fact that the case has continuously been in the spotlight has not had a positive effect. The Catholic Khalil Tahir Sindhu, who was one of Asia’s defence lawyers and is currently Provincial Minister for Minorities Affairs and Human Rights, tells Vatican Insider that throughout his career, he has successfully defended numerous blasphemy cases “obtaining 37 acquittals for Christian victims”. As in Asia’s case, it involved uncovering false accusations: but all these cases were resolved “away from the spotlight”.
Pakistan’s bishops have also opted for the “low profile”, “underground” approach. According to Cecil Shane Chaudry, Executive Director of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, diplomacy is the way forward and not people raising their voices in the streets. This is the way to save Asia Bibi. “Ever since Asia Bibi’s case became known worldwide, Islamic radical groups began acting more harshly. Our extensive experience has shown us that in Pakistan, when a case turns into a riot between radical and liberal forces, everything becomes more complicated. I think it would be better for the Holy See too to offer diplomatic help, keeping a low profile, without making any public appeals for Asia Bibi.”
In a statement to Vatican Insider, Joseph Nadeem, who has been looking after Asia’s family, comented that: “An appeal from the Pope would cause quite a few problems for us right now. Let us recall the violent way in which fundamentalists reacted to Benedict XVI’s words. We know Pope Francis is close to us. But any public appeal he makes, even though it is made in good faith, will do nothing to help Asia Bibi’s safety nor will it help ensure her release. Instead we must trust in diplomacy as a weapon.”
Capuchin friar Francis Nadeem, the Order’s Provincial in Pakistan and head of an interreligious Council in Lahore, has the pulse of the situation regarding Islamic-Christian relations: “To exploit the suffering of Pakistani Christians for whatever reason, is deplorable,” he remarked. “The mentalities of Islamic fundamentalists and moderate Europeans are light years apart. Pakistan’s Christians are paying the price of a lack of political leadership in the country. We ask the Pope to pray for all who are persecuted.”
