New Delhi: All it took was a poem of solidarity for a Pakistani blogger to be charged with blasphemy and be put in jail. Asma Batool, a blogger from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir shared a poem by Salman Haider on the harassment women face in South Asian countries, after the Kolkata rape case.
“Khuda, Bhagwan or Ishwar, sab maujood they, jab rape hua (All the gods were witness when I was being violated), read the poem that Batool shared on Facebook. In an Instagram post, she is seen narrating another poem with the caption, “Your country is the same as mine”.
Now the police have picked her up on charges of blasphemy after religious clerics filed an FIR against her for insulting Allah. The FIR was filed against her on 25 August by Maulana Tahir Bashir, president of Ahlus Sunnat Wal Jamaat District in Poonch. Batool’s family has now filed a complaint with the local police, alleging that a mob attacked their home, threatened to kill them, and attempted to set their house on fire over accusations of abandoning their faith.
Activists across the country are now demanding her release and removal of the fabricated charges against her. “Asma Batool…has been arrested for blasphemy charges for sharing a poem on her social media. Aap maane ya na maaney, this is Pakistan” (agree or disagree, this is Pakistan), journalist Sabahat Zakariya wrote on X. “And this was inevitably going to be Pakistan when you aroused communal sentiments for secessionism instead of advocating for negotiations within a mixed polity.”
Batool has actively raised her voice against the oppression of minorities in Pakistan on social media. Her YouTube channel has videos of her celebrating Holi and talking about the people of Kashmir.
Social media users are both concerned and curious. “Can’t wait for them to discover Iqbal (Allama Iqbal) and how “blasphemous” he gets. This is disgusting and I seriously can’t begin to see how we can ever reverse it,” a concerned user wrote on X.
Human rights activist Gulalai Ismail too condemned Batool’s arrest and wrote, “Blasphemy law is the new sedition law; a tool used by the civil-military establishment to punish dissent.”
