Update on Asia Bibi

Has Asia Bibi been forgotten?

Key quote:

Asia Bibi, an impoverished 48-year-old farmer, was sentenced to death in 2010 after her neighbors accused her of insulting the prophet Muhammad. According to Bibi, she was involved in a dispute after some women laborers she was in the fields with said they would not drink water from the same bowl because she was not a Muslim. She said they slapped her and pulled her hair. They apparently later went to the police and accused her of making derogatory remarks about Islam's prophet.

Bibi's sentencing triggered an outcry among human rights groups and the international community. Pakistani rights organizations took up her case and campaigned for her release. Several Pakistani politicians also criticized Bibi's sentencing and imprisonment under the blasphemy laws.

But now Bibi's case seems all but forgotten. The media has stopped mentioning it, and the rights groups have ceased to follow it proactively.

"The attention of rights organizations got diverted to other cases of minorities' persecution," Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told DW. "There have been several cases similar to Bibi's in the past two or three years."

The veteran human rights activist expressed her dissatisfaction over the human rights situation of religious minorities in Pakistan. "Prime Minister Sharif hosted a Christmas reception at the prime minister's house but it was part of the tokenism," Yusuf said, adding that the government needed to take steps to change the situation on ground.

But God has not forgotten Asia Bibi.

Read Asia Bibi's own words.

The online petition calling for mercy for Asia Bibi can still be found here.

For those who do not know who she is, here is the story about Asia Bibi's unjust imprisonment and death sentence for "blasphemy" against the Prophet Muhammad.

Please pray for Asia Bibi and her family.