“The blasphemous material which was shared/installed by the female accused on her status [on WhatsApp messaging platform] and the messages as well as caricatures which were sent to the complainant are totally unbearable and not tolerable for a Muslim,” Judge who wrote in his verdict in the case.

If you share images of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and one of his wives, which many Muslims see as holy, you could be sentenced to death by a Pakistani court. This is because you did something called “blasphemy.”

This is the case of a Muslim woman who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for “blasphemy” after uploading photographs deemed disrespectful to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and one of his wives.

Aneeqa Ateeq was sentenced on Wednesday in the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi under the country’s severe blasphemy laws, which include a mandatory death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Ateeq, 26, has pleaded not guilty to the accusations, which were first filed in May 2020.

In a statement to the court, Ateeq said that her accused, Hasnat Farooq, purposefully drew her into a theological debate in order to frame her after she refused to “be friendly” with him. They met on a famous online multiplayer game and remained in touch via WhatsApp.

“So I feel that he intentionally dragged into this topic for revenge, that’s why he got registered [sic] a case against me and during [WhatsApp] chat he collected everything that went against me,” she said in an evidentiary statement.

Farooq claims that the accused posted the allegedly blasphemous content as a WhatsApp status and refused to erase it when he confronted her on the messaging app.

Ateeq’s death sentence must be confirmed by the Lahore High Court, a court to which she has the right to appeal.

Blasphemy is a delicate topic in Pakistan, where the country’s severe laws impose heavy penalties for a range of offences, including life sentences for some types of blasphemy and the mandatory death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Allegations of blasphemy have increasingly resulted in extrajudicial violence, mob punishment, or large-scale violent protests.

According to an Al Jazeera tally, at least 80 people have been executed in connection with blasphemy claims since 1990. According to the records, those killed include persons accused of blasphemy, their family members, lawyers, and at least one judge.

A Sri Lankan textile mill manager was beaten to death by a crowd and his body was publicly burned in the eastern city of Sialkot in December after coworkers accused him of blasphemy.

Due to the inflammatory nature of the allegations, international rights organisations claim that legal proceedings in blasphemy trials in Pakistan are frequently prejudiced against the accused.

In a 2015 report, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) found that blasphemy trials in Pakistan were “fundamentally unfair,” citing issues such as intimidation and harassment of judges, “demonstrable bias and prejudice against defendants by judges,” and investigations and prosecutions that did not meet due diligence requirements.

Image Credit: Getty

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