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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – In 2009, Asia Bibi led a simple life with her husband and children in a rural area of Pakistan. His family was one of three Christian families in his village, but they had never had many problems from Muslim neighbors, according to relatives.
Supporters of the religious party Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam – Fazal-ur Rehman (JUI-F) raise their hands chanting slogans, after the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan, November 1, 2018. REUTERS / Akhtar Soomro
"She was an ordinary innocent, loving and caring woman," said Joseph Nadeem, Bibi's brother-in-law. "She and her husband were farm workers. They had five children and a happy life.
Then an argument over a cup of water with other workers led to Bibi's death sentence for blasphemy against Islam. She spent eight years on death row before the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned her sentence this week and ordered her release.
The Bibi ordeal has become a symbol of the hardships faced by Pakistan's small Christian population, only 2.6 percent of the country's 208 million, and other religious minorities as radical Islamist movements grow stronger.
His family is now hiding for fear of attacks by Islamists dissatisfied with the judgment and are still waiting to find Bibi.
"You know that my two youngest girls were under 10 when their mother left … They do not remember spending a lot of time with her," Bibi's husband told Reuters, Ashiq Masih, Reuters.
The family has four daughters and one son, he said.
"We are grateful to the court for deciding to take the case into consideration as human beings instead of any discrimination on the basis of faith or religion."
He added that Bibi, about 50 years old, had not been released from prison until his safety was assured.
Thousands of members of a radical Islamist party blocked the roads for two days in Pakistan's big cities to protest the Supreme Court's decision, even calling for the assassination of the judges who made the decision.
"She can not be safe here," said her brother-in-law Nadeem. "You know what's going on outside. We want things to calm down before we release him. "
DISCRIMINATION
The rise of Islamist parties such as Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP), which has made the "death to blasphemers" its main rallying cry, worries many Pakistani religious minorities.
Although the TLP has not won any seats in the National Assembly in the general election this year, it has garnered 2.2 million votes nationwide. The party's heated rhetoric has also drawn much of the political rhetoric right into this deeply conservative country.
Pakistan is made up of about 96 percent Sunni and Shiite Muslims, with Christians, Hindus, and members of the Ahmadi religion forming tiny minorities.
Christians in Pakistan are often the target of militant attacks, including a pre-Christmas suicide bombing attack against a Methodist church that killed more than 50 people in the last year. the city of Quetta, in the south-west of the country. The attack was claimed by the local ISIS branch.
Christians are also frequent targets of discrimination and violence. In 2013, a crowd burned over 125 Christian homes in a Lahore neighborhood after rumors spread that a Christian resident had insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
Religious minorities are also much more likely to be accused of blasphemy than Muslims.
Despite their small percentage of the population, Christians, Hindus and Ahmadiyya accounted for half of the 1,549 blasphemy cases filed in the last three decades of 2017, according to Peter Jacobs, Christian leader of the Center for Social Justice, which compiled numbers.
Pakistan's Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and, as the Supreme Court decision stated in Wednesday's ruling, the Holy Quran of Islam insists on tolerance and the fight against injustices. The decision stated that the evidence against Bibi was insufficient to convict her.
Bibi's family reports that they lived side by side with Muslim neighbors in the village of Ikkawali, Punjab province, north of the army.
"You know, in the society in which we live, we are often discriminated against as Christians, but she led a happy life," said Nadeem.
& # 39; ENEMY & # 39;
Everything changed on June 14, 2009, when Bibi offered a cup of water to his fellow Muslim field workers. One woman refused, claiming that nothing in the hand of a Christian was unclean, according to the Supreme Court's ruling.
The incident resulted in harsh words and a police complaint a few days later, and then at the trial that saw Bibi sentenced to death.
"Just drinking water in a cup has made the whole village its enemy," Nadeem said.
Bibi is soon free, his family is struggling to make plans. They would rather leave the country to be safe, but plans are in place.
"We have not had any contact with the Pakistani authorities or anyone from outside," Nadeem said.
Yet, despite all that his family has gone through, Bibi's husband, Masih, said it would be sad to have to leave his homeland.
"We are also part of Pakistan," he said.
"It's our country. We like that. "
Additional report by Mubasher Bukhari; Written by Kay Johnson; Edited by Robert Birsel
