Christian Teacher in Pakistan Reinstated to Her Job After False Allegation of Teaching Bible to Muslim Students

By 

ACLJ.org

|
December 23, 2014

3 min read

Persecuted Church

A

A

By Shaheryar Gill

The Organization for Legal Aid (OLA), ECLJ’s affiliate in Pakistan, has successfully represented Zanobia Mary, a Pakistani Christian elementary school teacher, who faced various false accusations because of her Christian faith. The school officials accused Mary, inter alia, of preaching Christianity to the students. As a result of the accusations, Mary was suspended from her job and threatened with dire consequences.

Zanobia Mary has been teaching since 1997. She began teaching elementary school at the Government Girls High School in 2008. In April 2014, Mary experienced opposition from Raheela Seemab. Seemab, the headmistress of the school, disliked Mary because of her Christian religion. This opposition became evident when Mary was hospitalized due to her severe asthma. Seemab refused to grant Mary medical leave and tried to fire her. In May 2014, Seemab suspended Mary from her job. In response, Mary went to court and received a court order reinstating her position. The court also issued an order to the school administration to file a report with the court explaining the reasons for Mary’s suspension.

This conflict prompted some of the students to protest Seemab’s actions, but Seemab responded by accusing Mary of organizing the protest. Mary appeared before the officials at the education department in order to get her position reinstated as per the court orders. Instead of following the court orders, the officials told her to go to the High Court. Mary filed a petition with the High Court, which reinstated her once again. Ultimately, Seemab was transferred, and a new headmistress took the position.

Even with a new headmistress, Mary faced new accusations in December 2014. In response to a report that Mary was teaching her religion to the students, school officials visited Mary’s class where they realized she was teaching the class on Islam. They reacted by pulling her from the class and demanding that she explain why she was teaching the class. Although Mary explained that the headmistress had assigned the class to her, the officials reassigned the class to a Muslim. In their notes, the officials wrote that it was “against the very soul of Islam” to have a Christian teach a class about Islam.

Two days later, top school officials called Mary to their office. Once there, they began to yell, insult, threaten, and falsely accuse her. Although Mary again explained that the Islam class had simply been assigned to her, the officials accused Mary of deliberately teaching a class that she knew she should have nothing to do with. They also accused her of organizing the protest earlier in the year after pretending to be ill. Another accusation against Mary alleged that she promoted Christianity in the school and threatened her students if they did not study the Bible. All of these accusations culminated in threats from the officials. They reminded her of the Christians that were recently burned alive and told her that it was her turn to burn. They also threatened to file a blasphemy claim against her so she would be imprisoned like other blasphemers. Before ending the meeting, the school officials clearly expressed their desire to ignore the previous court rulings that favored Mary, and they suspended her based on their accusations against her.

The ECLJ’s affiliate in Pakistan challenged Mary’s suspension. The court yet again reinstated her position. Additionally, some of her students have volunteered to speak out against the allegations. We will keep you updated on any developments.