Freed and exiled, Asia Bibi dreams of returning to Pakistan one day
paris — Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges, spoke on Tuesday of trying to make a new life in a strange country and her dreams of returning home.
While safe in Canada, which granted her a one-year stay after she was freed from jail, she has yet to taste true freedom.
“Well, I haven’t visited Canada yet. I have stayed at home, mostly... I don’t go out much and basically it is because of the cold and the snow,” the 48-year-old said in an interview in Paris, speaking in Urdu through an English translator.
Bibi was in France to promote her book “Enfin Libre!” (Finally Free!) co-written with French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet.
She does not speak either of Canada’s official languages, English or French, and is largely illiterate. She misses her sisters, brother, father and in-laws back home. But most of all having “four (distinct) seasons, my culture and my food!”
Bibi said she was hopeful things would change to allow her and her family — husband Ashiq, 58, and daughters Eisham, 20, and 21-yearold Eisha, who is disabled — to return to Pakistan one day. “I really hope for it, just the way I kept hope when I was in jail that one day I was going to be free,” said Bibi.
An ardent Catholic, she insisted
Tuesday that she never committed blasphemy. “No way... I cannot even think of insulting any prophet. I didn’t say anything. It was all about a glass of water.”
In Canada, Bibi lives with her husband and daughters in a threeroom apartment in an undisclosed location. She said she had not recently received any direct threats.
“I did read in the newspapers that someone was threatening to kill me. But I just keep calm. I’m strong.”
As for the immediate future, Bibi said she did not know where the family would go next. “I have not yet made up my mind,” she said.
“I know the European Union is working very hard on my case and they are the ones who will decide where I am going to be living,” she said, adding she would “very likely” discuss possible French asylum at a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron on Friday.
Asia Bibi hopes one day to help other people persecuted for their beliefs. “I feel that all of us, we should unite to help those people who are imprisoned under such blasphemy laws, not only in Pakistan but around the world.” —