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Coming from a family, which has been a melting pot of different faiths, religious intolerance is an emotion that is alien to me. With my limited understanding of religion, I often wonder what it is about faith that empowers most believers with the absolute authority to judge others!
Her story now appears in the form of a book under review. For the uninitiated, Asia Bibi, an illiterate woman, low in the social order, from a village called Ittan Wali, made the “mistake” of drinking water on a hot Sunday in 2009 from a well that belonged to the Muslim community. Her action led to a heated argument between her and her fellow fruit pickers. In her attempt to defend herself on the fateful day, she allegedly made another mistake, the mistake of asking her aggressors, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of mankind, what did your Prophet Muhammad ever do to save mankind?” It was an unsavoury comment that could be dismissed as the angry retort of an illiterate woman, but Article 295c of the Pakistani Penal Code found her guilty enough to be hanged. What followed was the nightmarish experience of a woman kept in solitary confinement, constant shifting of her family members who fear getting killed by religious extremists and two brutal murders, of Shahbaz Bhatti, who was the Minster of Minorities, and Governor Salman Taseer, for sympathising with Asia Bibi and questioning the need for the draconian Blasphemy Law. The book, proof of Asia’s survival instinct, has been written by French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who extensively covered the case for various television news programmes. There was never any direct contact between the two women. Tollet managed to meet the family members of Asia and get her queries answered by Asia through Asia’s husband Ashiq, who was the only person, besides her lawyer, allowed to visit her. So Asia was the voice and Tollet the pen. Tollet has taken care not to glorify Asia’s sufferings. She is not overtly critical of the draconian system. The author wants the book to be a mode of appeal to the international community to save Asia. She says that with no lawyer coming forward to fight her case because of the fear of facing the wrath of religious fanatics, this book could be her only hope for survival. Asia languishes in her windowless cell but dreams of reuniting with her family at Ittan Wali. She has been ailing but her spirit is still ready to fight for justice, and wait for the day when her situation will, hopefully, take a turn for the better. All she asks for is to someone to tell her that she will live to see that day!
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One tries to seek answers in Asia Bibi’s story, a Pakistani Christian woman, who is currently lodged in Sheikhupura prison, in the Punjab province of Pakistan, awaiting the judgment of the High Court in Lahore on her appeal against the death sentence given to her in a blasphemy case in 2010.
