Asia Bibi

Would the country that gives her asylum actually announce it? Wouldn't it be more sensible to do it on the quiet? I don't know how it normally works.

I don't think the problem is finding a country that grants her and her family asylum. The problem is for the Pakistani decision makers to find the right time and have the balls to let her leave the country. They surely don't want to risk another round of crazy, destabilizing protests, now do they want to be assassinated the way two politicians, who spoke out for Asia 7(?) years back, were.

The Telegraph has also run a similar story to HuffPo - again with quotes from the group representing Pakistani Christians in the UK, and the standard "We can't comment on individual cases" comment from the Home Office.

Reading between the lines I'd guess what's really going on is this - pressure group pushing for pre-emptive offer of no-strings asylum. Home Office saying "Sorry folks, that's not how the law works - if she gets on a plane here, and claims asylum on arrival, because that's how the law does work, her case will be considered in the same way as anyone else's. It may well be the case that she has a very strong case, but we can't pre-empt the legal process."

I very much doubt it's a case of "The UK will not offer her asylum."

Would the country that gives her asylum actually announce it? Wouldn't it be more sensible to do it on the quiet? I don't know how it normally works.

At least it's being picked up by the right people (I may have mentioned it once or twice but Nawaz is probably my go-to pundit right now).

twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1061225729759854592

I don't buy it either. I doubt very much that any country who has been contacted is saying anything.

I don't buy that Huff Po article. Ultimately it would be Sajid Javid's call as Home Secretary, and I very much get the impression his attitude to the extremists within the UK Muslim community is very much "fuck you and the horse you rode in on" - and as a Muslim himself, he's in a position to say this. (Probably without the swearing though - he doesn't strike me as a particularly sweary person).

UK 'Won't Offer Asylum To Asia Bibi Amid Security Concerns'

The British Pakistani Christian Association said UK government is concerned about "unrest among certain sections of the community."

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/britain-not-prepared-to-offer-asylum-to-persecuted-pakistani-christian_uk_5be3342be4b0dbe871a61b95?ncid=other_twitter_cooo9wqtham&utm_campaign=share_twitter&guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlYW1lcmljYW5jb25zZXJ2YXRpdmUuY29tLw&guce_referrer_cs=W3CHPdoAdb7aEMQD_0B3Xw

I'm really hoping that she has been granted asylum in a safe country and given a new identity. Much better for nobody to know her whereabouts. The poor woman and her family have been through enough already.

? It was in the press. I'm hardly releasing classified information.

I don't think we should speculate on her location.

I had understood she had left for the Netherlands. Hard enough for the Pakistani authorities anyway particularly for Imran Khan as he won by chasing the religious vote.

It’s possible Pakistani authorities have no idea where she is. You can enter and leave Pakistan from any non-Indian border without anyone knowing.

I can only hope it is false news to prevent any extremists in The Netherlands attacking her. I'm not holding my breath on this given the Pakistani authorities were responsible for imprisoning her in the first place.

My guess is the plan is for her to stay in Pakistan until the masses find something else to riot about, and then move abroad (Italy or Israel might be her best bet). However the Pakistani authorities handled this terribly— to think Pakistan once used to be on a par with India and China. It’s now very much the provincial swampwater and the politicians have only themselves to blame.

Shameful if true. Not an exaggeration though - remember the Ahmadi shopkeeper murdered in Glasgow?

twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1061020890517958661

'However, Pakistan's foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said the mother of five has not left the country. "There is no truth in reports about Bibi leaving the country -- it is fake news," he said.
'
www.ndtv.com/world-news/asia-bibi-leaving-for-netherlands-fake-news-say-pakistan-officials-1944392

I hope that's actually fake news itself, who knows. Given the threats of violence, if the Pakistani authorities had let her leave I wouldn't blame them at all if they wanted to obfuscate.

Oh god I hope that's true, Uretha. It's the news I've been waiting to hear.

She's on her way to a new life in the Netherlands. It's a great country with fabulous people.

But Asia was transferred to Islamabad, so she is still in Pakistan, so, she is not yet safe, no?

It's a horrific case. I do hope she and her family make it out of Pakistan OK, but I worry about her safety elsewhere - fanatics are everywhere, unfortunately.

Religious and other community intolerance appears when there are strict prohibitions and penalties for certain forms of behaviour.

Abusers play damned if you do, damned if you don't.
There's another thread where women speaking out on prison rights and safety issues in women's prisons are being corrected for daring to speak out on an issue that does not affect them, since they are all white and middle class.
Recently, women speaking out on women's rights who wanted to speak in Ireland as well as on the mainland were told to stay at home.

I have no doubt that if women did speak out on behalf of Asia that they would be criticized for speaking out of turn and ignoring issues closer to home - and that Brendan knows that.

That's true enough, though I'm not eager to get into the boggy minefield of the specifics of the religious oppression here - my comment was based on the images of entirely male angry crowds, largely because there is a religiously flavoured patriarchal restriction on 'free mixing' in certain parts of Islam so no women were around.

I don't think it's at all easy to extricate patriarchy from certain aspects of religion.

I would have described it as an example of the toxicity of religion.

That is the main factor here, extreme religious intolerance. There have, unfortunately, been many incidents of men suffering because of it too. There have been cases in such societies which do demonstrate 'patriarchal hatred of women' (the criminalising of rape victims) but on 'blasphemy' or simply being the wrong religion, I'm not sure it's any better for men.

"If you want a visual depiction of patriarchal hatred of women, there it is."

I would have described it as an example of the toxicity of religion.

The background from BBC site

This trial stems from an argument Asia Bibi had with a group of women.
They were harvesting fruit when a row broke out about a bucket of water. The women said that because she had used a cup, they could no longer touch it, as her faith had made it unclean.
Prosecutors alleged that in the row which followed, the women said Asia Bibi should convert to Islam and that she made offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in response.