On the latest update of Asia Bibi, Pakistan has recently overturned her conviction. She had been arrested and sentenced to death for blasphemy, as a christian minority in Pakistan her family always had to be extremely careful considering the laws against blasphemy. A local woman went to her local cleric and accused Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed. Without any evidence this immediately sent Bibi to prison, most likely because her family is actively christian so convicting her without evidence wouldn’t be a problem. She was imprisoned in 2010 and has remained in prison for eight years, Pope Benedict XVI had called for her release- which obviously didn’t happen- and then Bibis daughter met with the current pope in 2015 -still nothing happened- Bibis case has caused uprise world wide. Pakistan has actually started to weaponize blasphemy which I find extremely interesting, people- especially journalists or politicians- can easily be called “blasphemous” as long as they’re saying anything that might upset the government. Which will send them immediately to jail or have them killed. This somewhat reminds me of the entire Kashoggi murder, Saudi Arabia didn’t like what he was saying and killed him because of it. Things like this happen frequently in the middle east yet we know nothing about it, absolutely no attention is drawn to events such as these. They’re completely covered up by the government. Salman Taseer, who was the governor of pakistan’s most populous region had called for Bibis release and was then murdered by his own bodyguard. It just amazes me how their government can get away with these things. There is absolutely nothing to protect people from their own government- which somewhat scares me, living in a world of constant fear and having to be mindful of everything you say, or listen to. It also in my mind kind of explains why the middle east is in constant turmoil, if their government is constantly watching and monitoring the people’s actions the fact that they would rebel doesn’t surprise me.
