Asia Bibi’s appalling condition in Pakistan’s death row portrayed in music video
June 6, 2012 No Comments
June 6, 2012 / MariaNews.com
‘No Human Being Can Live Like This’
Asia Bibi’s appalling condition in Pakistan’s death row portrayed through disturbing music video. UK based band’s new music video exposes the true story of Christian mother currently in Pakistan’s death row.
UNITED KINGDOM - A new music video “Free Asia Bibi”, inspired by Asia Bibi’s autobiography, reveals the full horror of Christian persecution in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Arrested for resisting violent pressures to convert to Islam she now languishes in an isolated cell awaiting her appeal against a sentence, condemning her to death by hanging under Section 295c of Pakistan’s penal code.
Bibi’s cell is like a tomb, deprived of sunlight. She can see ‘no more than the prison bars, the wet ground and the walls blackened by filth. An odour of grease, sweat and urine pervades everything…It is the smell of death or of despair.’[1]
When it rains outside, it also rains in her cell. Her soiled flimsy blanket, like her clothes, become wet and the ground in her cell turns to mud. She sleeps on ‘a single mattress of braided rope, without sheets or a pillow.’[2]
To preserve the little heat that comes from her tired and sore body she curls up, adopting a foetus position, knees pressed to her chin. She excretes on the floor. ‘No human being can live like this,’ she says, ‘Each day I look deep inside myself for the strength to hold on. I am fighting to keep a bit of dignity.’
Hal, from the electro-pop band ooberfuse, who co-wrote the band’s hard-hitting song and music video Free Asia Bibi, said “Asia’s autobiography vividly describes the hellish conditions she has been living in since her arrest on 14th June 2009.
To compound the injustice of an unwarranted death sentence, meted out to appease the angry mob whose rage was fuelled by local mullahs preaching hatred, Asia has spent close to 3 years living in the most undignified prison conditions. Whereas Muslim clerics, like Abu Hamza, responsible for some of the worst terrorist atrocities in the West, enjoy the relative comfort of prison cells with televisions and 50 channels, she is fighting for survival in conditions unfit for an animal.
Cherrie says : “The authorities are caught between a rock and a hard place : if they release Asia there will be riots on the streets. If they hang her there will be condemnation from the international community. By making prison life so unbearable, it seems they are hoping she dies in gaol. She is currently awaiting either death or freedom. It is not too late to save her, either by getting the original verdict overturned or by obtaining a presidential pardon. We can help free her by expressing global public support for Asia Bibi and campaigning for her release.”
Visit www.freeasiabibi.co.uk for more details.
Join the Campaign to Free Asia Bibi – Spread the word & Pray.
LINKS:
Free Asia Bibi – Song
Free Asia Bibi – Youtube
Free Asia Bibi – Website
Related stories:
- http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/headlinenewsd.php?hnewsid=3560
[1] P.6
[2] P.92
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