A Christian woman, currently on death row for insulting the prophet Muhammad in Pakistan, has pleaded with a court to allow her to live.
Asia Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 under Pakistan’s strict anti-blasphemy laws. She was sentenced to hang following a quarrel she had in 2009 with a Muslim woman.
Her husband, Ashiq Masih, told the Catholic News Service that she will learn the outcome of her appeal to the Pakistan Supreme Court later this month.
Cruxnow.com reports: archive.fo
If Bibi is released, he said, she and her family will immediately seek sanctuary in one of several countries that have offered them exile, because it is too dangerous for them to remain in Pakistan.
Ashiq, a builder from Sheikhupura, Pakistan, was in England with his and Bibi’s youngest daughter, Eisham Ashiq, as guests of Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity helping persecuted Christians.
They said when they visited Bibi in Multan Prison Oct. 1 that she was in good health, contrary to speculation that she was developing dementia.
During the interview at St Columba’s Church, Ashiq said Bibi was praying constantly and that she deeply believed she would win her freedom.
“She is psychologically, physically and spiritually strong,” said Ashiq. “Having a very strong faith, she is ready and willing to die for Christ. She will never convert to Islam.
“She also wanted to deliver a message to the international community that they must remember her in their prayers. These prayers will open the door of the prison, and she will be released very soon,” he said.
“She is spending her life praying with a very strong faith and is reading the Bible every day. She feels when she is praying, Jesus is encouraging and supporting her,” he continued, adding that she also received Communion in jail Oct. 1.
In June 2009 Bibi, who worked as a farmhand, was accused of blasphemy against Islam after Muslim women objected to her drinking from a common water supply because she is a Christian.
Eisham told CNS that, as a 9-year-old girl, she witnessed her mother being severely beaten by a Muslim mob in the aftermath of the accusation.
“I believe in God and I believe she will be released, but she can’t live in Pakistan once she has been released — simple as that,” she said.
Bibi was rescued by police, only to be sentenced to death for violating Section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which makes insulting Muhammad a capital offense.
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