by JAN BREMAN
(Jan Breman (J.C.Breman@uva.nl) is professor emeritus at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.)
Abandoned by their government, the poor of Pakistan have turned to the Taliban and other fundamentalist groups for support and solace. At the same time, a growing pressure for emancipation presses against fundamentalism. Which force will triumph? A report based on travel in rural Sindh.
In her prison cell, Asia Bibi is waiting since 2010 for execution of the verdict brought against her. Blasphemy is the crime she has been accused of and for that gravest of sins the penalty is to be hanged. Why and how was she found guilty?
Asia Bibi is an agricultural labourer in Punjab, illiterate, mother of small children and Christian. When at work in the field as part of a female gang, she went to fetch water to drink and passed around the jug to her fellow workers. A few of them refused, saying that having touched her mouth, the spout had become unclean. Asia belongs to a low caste of Hindu origin that has been converted to Christianity. This attempt to escape from the stigma of untouchability has not ended the discrimination to which she is subjected.
A quarrel arose in the field during which sister Asia had the temerity to say that she held her prophet in higher regard than the one of the other women. Back in the village the landlord decided that a case had to be filed with the police. The case against the sinner resulted in her imprisonment and, finally, to the charge of capital punishment. Exactly what she had said when the broil was on in the field has not been put on record because doing that would be to repeat words that cannot be spoken and, therefore, also not written down. Religious professionals have strongly campaigned against pardoning Asia or reducing her penalty.
The governor of Punjab showed civil courage when, together with his daughter, he visited her in jail. His promise to try and arrange for her release, covertly if not overtly, has cost him his life. In January 2011, Salman Taseer was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. When arrested and taken to court, the killer, member of a militant sect, was greeted by a jubilant crowd and the Muslim clergy had issued a fatwa against praying for Taseer’s soul at his burial.
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