A 40-year-old Muslim woman from Punjab shares the same name but is not a relative of the famous Christian from Sheikhupura District. Both are victims of the blasphemy laws.
by Massimo Introvigne
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman from Sheikhupura District, Punjab, became internationally famous when she was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010. International organizations and several Western governments mobilized, leading to her acquittal by the Supreme Court in 2018 and permission to leave Pakistan and seek asylum in the West in 2019.
As “Bitter Winter” periodically reminds its readers, the international mobilization that saved Asia Bibi should be applauded, but there are hundreds of similar and less famous cases. They do not get the same global attention and continue to be generated every month by Pakistan’s anti- blasphemy laws, which were amended in 2023 to make them even worse.
The legal community and minority right activists in Pakistan are now debating the verdict of March 21 against another woman, also named Asia (sometimes transliterated as Aasiya) Bibi, whom the Court of Lahore sentenced to life imprisonment for blasphemy. Unlike the Christian Asia Bibi, of whom she is not a relative, this 40-year-old woman is a Muslim. What she has in common with the famous Asia Bibi is that both have been sentenced on the basis of probably false accusations of blasphemy.
The Muslim Asia Bibi has been accused of burning pages of the Holy Quran, a frequent accusation in cases of blasphemy. Her lawyer, however, denounced the fact that the FIR (First Information Report) that started the case in 2021 was filed directly by the police rather than by the witness or witnesses who had allegedly seen her commit the act. The witnesses surfaced later, but their stories were confused and contradictory. The possibility that the woman had mental health problems was also not considered.
The lawyer plans to appeal. The case, however, is yet another confirmation that blasphemy laws are the problem. They are unlikely to be repealed, however, as the majority of the population supports them. Even some minority religions’ leaders, including Catholic Bishops, told “Bitter Winter” that any campaign to abolish Pakistan’s blasphemy laws a lost cause and recommended to focus on individual cases. However, so far this strategy rarely worked.
Pakistani voters may be in love with blasphemy laws, but Pakistan needs international economic help, and what it receives from China is not enough (and is not for free). Democratic countries may and should use this leverage to call for the elimination of laws and regulations threatening freedom of religion and human rights.