Muslim husband for refusing to convert to Islam, and lawyers said many more Christian women are abused for similar religious reasons.
"Incidents of Christian women who are tortured and forced to accept the religion of their husbands are very common in Pakistan," said lawyer Mukhtar Masih Bhatti, chairman of the Legal Aid Working Society (Laws) and a secretary of the Christian Lawyers Association in Pakistan.
He spoke as doctors treated a Christian woman in Karachi, identified as Honey, for "serious injuries" linked to the alleged torture, while her family went into hiding for fear of more persecution and death threats, BosNewsLife established.
POLICE DENIAL
Police officials have reportedly refused to investigate the case despite growing public pressure, and local Christians claim there is "total apathy" towards them among authorities.
"Honey was tortured by her husband, Faisal Raees, on February 20 when her brother, Richard, visited their house and objected to the cruelty meted out on her sister for refusing to accept Islam," said the Pakistan Christian Post newspaper.
Her husband allegedly hit her brother and "tied him up with a rope before beating up his wife" the well informed newspaper claimed. "He stripped her naked and beat her up with an iron rod, breaking some of her bones and teeth. He also bit her nose, breasts and genitals."
"BLOOD POOL"
When neighbors, on hearing Honey’s screams rushed to the house, Raees allegedly "ran away leaving her lying unconscious in a pool of blood," the newspaper added. Doctors fear the young woman may no longer be able to give birth.
"[I] have never come across such an extreme case of violence against a woman," said Dr. Fazia, a medical examiner, in an interview with the Daily Naya Akhbar newspaper. The published torture has underscored concern among human rights groups about the treatment of minority Christians in Pakistan, a mainly Muslim nation.
Christian human rights watchdog Open Doors said recently it placed Pakistan as the 13th country on its long World Watch List 2005 of nations persecuting Christians. Pakistani Christians claim they have "long been suffering" for their faith in Christ.
MAIN OBSTACLES
They cite as main obstacles in their daily life the alleged "discrimination in education and employment" as well as "incidents of converting Christian women to Islam by force and rape" and the "abduction of poor Christian women by the influential Muslim majority."
Analysts say controversial blasphemy laws, introduced by former Prime Minister Zia-ul-Haq, have added to the problems as they are seen as giving a marginal status to Christians, and
women in particular. The legislation has numerous loopholes to allow false accusations of blasphemy to be proven true, critics claim.
Under the legal framework, a death penalty can be carried out if a person is proven guilty of blasphemy, but human rights watchers claim Muslim militants often "misuse the law to settle personal scores with Christians." In addition several Christian believers are known to have been shot dead by Muslim extremists, even after their court acquittal, BosNewsLife learned. Christians account for about one percent of Pakistan’s total population of nearly 150 million.
(Based in New Delhi, Journalist Vishal Arora, 32, has covered persecution and other hard hitting news stories for a variety of international and national publications. He has traveled around the country on invitation by NGOs for seminars and talks on human rights, communalism, and religious persecution. Vishal Arora can be contacted at e-mail address vishalarora_in@hotmail.com or visit his website http://www40.brinkster.com/vishalarora/ )
