THIS week was marked with two rather disturbing incidents which left a rather bitter taste in my mouth. Persecution of innocent lives continues unchecked in the name of religion.
Although both incidents took place in different parts of the world they have so many similarities. Both show the glaring injustice that women continue to suffer in this day and age.
In an era where some women enjoy some degree of emancipation, religious freedom continues to elude many. The first incidence involves that of “apostasy”. This is also a new word that I learned which I can now add to my ever expanding vocabulary.
This word simply means defecting or renouncing one’s formal religion. Apostates can be shunned, victimised or punished in some states either by religious institutions or State organs in countries where there is no distinction between religion and state. Sudan is one of those countries where it is a criminal offence to convert from Islam to any other religion.
Such conversions are punishable by death according to strict shariah law. Now I came to learn of this word though a young Sudanese female apostate who has been sentenced to death for refusing to denounce her Christian faith.
We are now living in the 21st century and I really ought not to be writing about stuff like this because in all honesty it should not be happening. Religion is supposed to be kind not cruel. Surely it should preach mercy, forgiveness and compassion. Yet we have religious rules that allow for the persecution of a young woman on the basis of her religious beliefs.
This beautiful angelic 27-year-old woman, Meriam Ibrahim, is a mother to an 18-month-old boy and has just given birth to her second child, a daughter, in a Khartoum prison. She has been given an allowance to breastfeed the baby for a further two years before being executed.
I don’t know whether this judgment is gracious or just downright vindictive. Some might argue that she has at least been given two precious years with her daughter and her son who are both in prison with her. I think it’s down right cruelty to let a woman birth and nurture her children only to brusquely extricate them from her life.
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Any mother will understand the anguish of this eventuality. Has she not been punished enough already? Furthermore what fate awaits these children who are now declared illegitimate despite the fact that their father lives on? Her husband, Daniel Wani is a Christian from South Sudan with US citizenship.
I don’t think when they got married five years ago he anticipated that this mayhem awaited them after the honeymoon. Now he is faced with the possibility of his marriage being deemed illegitimate which would also render the offspring from the union illegitimate.
Although he was acquitted of charges of harbouring an apostate, this remains a heartbreaking eventuality for a young family.
In Pakistan another woman suffered a similar fate of being stoned to death simply for marrying the man she loves. Farzana Parveen was stoned to death by 20 family members outside a Lahore court simply for defying her parents’ wishes and marrying the man she loved.
Lahore is not even a remote village where many such incidents like these go unreported. It is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Punjabi and is the second largest metropolitan area. Yet a woman was stoned to death in full view of policemen who allegedly turned a blind eye.
What makes this a double tragedy is that she was three months pregnant. Not only was a woman’s life lost, but that of an innocent unborn child. This is truly heartbreaking. So often we take a lot for granted on the liberties we have.
We are able to meet and interact with the opposite sex freely and we can fall in and out of love at leisure. We can eventually decide to settle down with whomever our heart desires. Yet in some quarters people are being persecuted merely for falling in love.
Like Sudan, Pakistan is largely a Muslim nation where women are expected to submit willingly to arranged marriages. Failure to comply with such arrangements results in “honour” killings.
Sue Nyathi is the author of the novel The Polygamist. You can follow her on Twitter @SueNyathi
