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    Minorities Under Siege

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    zainab
    This document discusses the oppression and discrimination faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. It notes that blasphemy laws are often abused to target minorities, as seen in the cases of Asia Bibi who spent 9 years in prison due to a blasphemy accusation without evidence, and an Ahmadi community member who was killed in a courtroom while facing blasphemy charges. Minority women, especially underage girls, are vulnerable to abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion to Islam. The document also discusses growing intolerance towards Shia Muslims, as seen in anti-Shia rallies and the vandalization of their religious sites. The rights of minorities in Pakistan remain at risk as long as religious extremism and

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    Minorities Under Siege

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    zainab
    20 views2 pages
    This document discusses the oppression and discrimination faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. It notes that blasphemy laws are often abused to target minorities, as seen in the cases of Asia Bibi who spent 9 years in prison due to a blasphemy accusation without evidence, and an Ahmadi community member who was killed in a courtroom while facing blasphemy charges. Minority women, especially underage girls, are vulnerable to abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion to Islam. The document also discusses growing intolerance towards Shia Muslims, as seen in anti-Shia rallies and the vandalization of their religious sites. The rights of minorities in Pakistan remain at risk as long as religious extremism and

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    Minorities under siege

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    This document discusses the oppression and discrimination faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. It notes that blasphemy laws are often abused to target minorities, as seen in the cases of Asia Bibi who spent 9 years in prison due to a blasphemy accusation without evidence, and an Ahmadi community member who was killed in a courtroom while facing blasphemy charges. Minority women, especially underage girls, are vulnerable to abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion to Islam. The document also discusses growing intolerance towards Shia Muslims, as seen in anti-Shia rallies and the vandalization of their religious sites. The rights of minorities in Pakistan remain at risk as long as religious extremism and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    20 views2 pages

    Minorities Under Siege

    Uploaded by

    zainab
    This document discusses the oppression and discrimination faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. It notes that blasphemy laws are often abused to target minorities, as seen in the cases of Asia Bibi who spent 9 years in prison due to a blasphemy accusation without evidence, and an Ahmadi community member who was killed in a courtroom while facing blasphemy charges. Minority women, especially underage girls, are vulnerable to abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion to Islam. The document also discusses growing intolerance towards Shia Muslims, as seen in anti-Shia rallies and the vandalization of their religious sites. The rights of minorities in Pakistan remain at risk as long as religious extremism and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Minorities under siege

    The white part of our flag represents the minorities in our country and
    yet at this point it’s just to exhibit and their existence, freedom and
    rights are being held captive.
    The extremism is on the verge and we often hear a new story of their
    oppression and discrimination. Between 1986 and 2007, Pakistani
    authorities charged 647 people with blasphemy offences. Fifty percent
    of these were non-Muslims, who represent only 3% of the national
    population. Asia bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, remains a prominent
    name to look into the wrong use of this law against minorities. In 2010,
    she was convicted of Blasphemy by a Pakistani court and was
    sentenced to death by hanging. She spent nine years of her life in
    solitary confinement and later Supreme court overturned the earlier
    verdict and she was allowed to walk free because of the lack of
    evidence. Nine years in prison because of an accusation that lacked
    evidence.
    Another recent case was of a member of Ahmadi community who was
    shot and killed during his hearing on blasphemy charges in a courtroom
    in Peshawar. It is no new news to take the law in one’s hands in such
    cases. Blasphemy laws are routinely abused to hunt vengeance and
    settle private scores. Minorities can always be easily targeted through
    such laws.
    The discrimination against women belonging to religious minority
    groups is worse; they become victims of rape, abduction, forced
    marriage and forced conversion. A large number of forced marriage and
    conversions happens to be with underage girls, as they are vulnerable
    and an easy target. The case of Arzoo Raja has been recently
    highlighted as she is a 13 years old girl who got abducted in Karachi and
    got married to a 44 year old man after converting to Islam.
    The religion is and has always been used as a tool for political purposes.
    The recent new target are the Shias as the intolerance isn’t just limited
    to people with different religion but there is a whole sectarian divide
    going on. Shias constitute an approximate 15-20% in our country and
    yet they live in a constant fear of being killed. After Hindus and
    Christians temples, Shias religious places are also being vandalized. An
    imambargah was vandalized in Karachi. Back in September, some
    massive Anti-Shia rallies echoing with the slogan ‘Shi’a kaafir’ were held
    in Karachi organized by the religious extremists. As well as there is an
    increase in the killings of Shias. A man was shot multiple times in Kohat
    while tending to his shop in front of people.
    The current scenario in Pakistan is alarming for the protection of the
    rights of minorities, as long as there are group of bigots treated as
    savior of Islam, we tend to remain in this situation.
    Zainab Imran
    BS in Social Work

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