Pakistan Sentences Muslim Woman to Death for Blasphemy
In the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistani Muslim woman Aneeqa Ateeq was sentenced to death for the crime of "blaspheming Islam." In May of 2020, Aneeqa was officially charged with blasphemy by Pakistani courts. The incident began when Aneeqa began communicating with a Muslim man by the name of Hasnat Farooq over WhatsApp. The two met through a popular online game and began communicating with each other. Hasnat accused Aneeqa of sending him offensive images of Muhammad over WhatsApp and went to the authorities and accused her of blasphemy. According to Judge Adnan Mustaq, "The blasphemous material which was shared are totally unbearable and not tolerable for a Muslim. This is only the latest of many cases in which people are imprisoned, often for years on end, when accused of Blasphemy. Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi spent over 8 years on death row when accused of this. Only through International Pressure did the Pakistani Supreme Court ove...