On Tuesday Asia Bibi will complete her ninth year of imprisonment for her Christian faith after being arrested for blasphemy in 2009 and sentenced to death by hanging in 2010.
In June 2009, Pakistani police arrested Asia Bibi on charges of blasphemy following complaints by Muslim women backed up by an Imam, who claimed she had insulted the prophet Muhammad.
The accusations followed on a row between Bibi and a group of Muslim coworkers. She had been harvesting berries in a field with a group of Muslim women who grew angry with her for drinking out of the same metal water bowl as them, insisting that as a Christian she was unclean.
From the outset Ms. Bibi has vehemently denied the charges of insulting the prophet. She claims that when her coworkers made derogatory statements about her faith, she merely answered: “I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Muhammad ever do to save mankind?”
In November 2010, Bibi received the death sentence by the lower court in Nanka district and four years later the Lahore High Court confirmed the verdict. She imprisoned in the Multan female prison. READ MORE
