Unjustly imprisoned for eight years in Pakistan: “God was with me in this struggle”
23/08/2024, Author: Massimiliano Tubani
Shagufta Kausar was falsely accused of blasphemy. For almost eight years she was separated from her family, her husband was beaten and tortured, and they were pressured to convert to Islam. Now free, she tells in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need how she found strength in her faith.
Shagufta Kausar with her husband Shafqat Emmanuel, in a recent interview with Aid To The Church In Need where Shagufta shares her story of being arrested on false charges of blasphemy and spending eight years on death row, before being released by Lahore Supreme Court.
Mrs Kausar, you were unjustly accused of blasphemy and, despite being innocent, spent almost eight years in a Pakistani jail. You were finally released. What is it like to be a Christian in Pakistan?
In Pakistan there is persecution against Christians, many are unjustly accused of blasphemy and incarcerated in jail. For us, even the simple things of daily life are difficult, because you might just be accused by a neighbour or, as happened in the Sargodha case, where a milkman falsely accused someone of burning a page of the Quran.
How did you find the strength to endure so many years of incarceration and separation from your loved ones?
After being accused – despite not owning a cell phone – of having sent a blasphemous text message to a local Imam, I was imprisoned in isolation. After being sentenced to death I suffered from heat, hunger and separation from my family. The only thing that nurtured me, and which became my source of serenity, was my faith in Jesus Christ. I read Matthew 6:27: “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”. I meditated and reflected on my faith and I felt strengthened inside. I was no longer alone; God was with me in this struggle between life and death.
Husband and wife Shafqat Emmanuel Masih and Shagufta Kausar, after being unjustly arrested on false charges of blasphemy in the Punjab town of Gojrain, Pakistan.
What impact did all of this situation have on your family and your friends?
When I was in prison I expected to be reunited with my children, but for three years I wasn’t allowed to see them. The boys were taken to a state-run protection centre. They were terrified, because since they were minors, they were considered children of a person who had committed blasphemy, and so they were treated with extreme prejudice and kept in isolation. My husband, who is disabled, was also arrested. In prison he was hung upside down and beaten to force him to admit that we had committed blasphemy. But we were innocent, and we couldn’t admit to something that we hadn’t done. We were pressured to convert to Islam, but we refused because we value our faith in Jesus Christ. My brother and my sister-in-law did what they could to make sure I got legal assistance and the European Union also worked to prove my innocence. I was lucky, but many others are still in prison. If Pakistan doesn’t do something to prevent abuse of this law, there will be plenty more Asia Bibis and Shagufta Kausers.
Many of our benefactors donate generously to help the Christians in Pakistan. Do you have a message for them?
Pakistan is very poor, and the Christians are the poorest of the poor. Since they have a faith that is different from the majority of the population, they end up being discriminated against and marginalised. If you are a Christian in Pakistan, and accused of blasphemy, no lawyer will willingly take your case, and no judge is willing to rule on it fairly, because in the past, radical groups have murdered lawyers or even judges who declared Christians to be innocent. This means that they need financial help to hire a lawyer. For these reasons, it is difficult for us to survive both as citizens and as Christians. Thanks to the benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need, and to so many other friends in the world who help to support us, we manage not only to survive, but also to profess our faith.
St. Luke’s parish in Lahore Diocese, Pakistan, which recently received a new vehicle from Aid To The Church In Need, in order for their priests to carry our pastoral visits.