2017 Victories: Justice for an Elderly Christian Woman and Other Christians Facing Unthinkable Persecution in Pakistan

This is the latest installment in a year-end series looking back at a few of the numerous victories by the ACLJ in 2017.

This year, through our legal office on the ground in Pakistan, the ACLJ secured significant victories for persecuted Christians in Pakistan – one of the worst violators of human rights in the world.

Mob violence, false accusations of blasphemy, forced conversions to Islam, police torture, and other forms of persecution and discrimination are a commonplace in this Muslim-majority country. Despite growing extremism, the Pakistani government has failed to protect its minorities from religiously motivated violence or bring perpetrators to justice.

In response to these atrocities and on behalf of these persecuted Christians, the ACLJ made an oral intervention before the United Nations Human Right’s Council. Our oral intervention detailed a few of the numerous religious violations occurring in Pakistan.

In addition to highlighting the plight of Pakistani Christians at the U.N., we represented an elderly Christian woman, Bashiran Bibi, who was assaulted by an influential Muslim man for refusing to clean his house. We filed a petition at the local court to order the police to file criminal charges against the perpetrator.

Through our legal advocacy, Bashiran did not succumb to threats and intimidation to drop the case, and she ended up receiving a monetary settlement. The very fact that a Muslim defendant had to offer monetary compensation to a poor, elderly Christian woman is a step forward for Christians and justice in Pakistan. It was an unheard of victory.

With your support, we can continue to bring an end to the violent attacks and other forms of persecution that Christians in Pakistan so frequently suffer.

To help the ACLJ continue to have the resources we need to make these victories possible and continue these fights, please consider making a Tax-Deductible donation to the ACLJ through our year-end Matching Challenge. Your gift will be DOUBLED dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

You can read more in the ACLJ’s 2017 Victories series here.

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