After the murder of liberal politician Salman Taseer, Pakistan’s moderate, educated classes are growing ever more fearful.
“Sana Saleem, 23, a human rights activist, has received threats after blogging about blasphemy” PHOTO/Asad Zaidi
With her frilly black hijab, eyeliner and Macbook, Sana Saleem does not look like a doughty human rights campaigner. Yet every day she shrugs off death threats and anonymous text messages promising to rape her in the street, in order to champion progressive causes on her blog.
Even she, though, was unprepared for the outpouring of hate that has engulfed Pakistan this week, with the murder of a high-profile politician who was leading a campaign to reform the country’s draconian blasphemy laws.
“I was devastated, really shocked,” said the 23-year-old medical student. “They were celebrating his death, showering the killer with rose petals. I never expected this,”
This week has been a bad one for the small but dedicated band of liberals and activists that meet in the Second Floor coffeeshop – a funky hang-out in a Karachi suburb, where radical voices meet to discuss tactics, organise vigils and argue beneath psychedelic murals and posters of John Lennon.
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