- Christian women can face hardship in Pakistan, rights groups say.
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- There was concern Tuesday, May 1, over the situation of a young Pakistani mother who local Christians said has been "falsely accused" of "blaspheming" Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Shamim Bibi, 26, was detained February 28 at her home in Khichiwala village in Pakistan's Punjab province and has since been held behind bars, explained The Voice, a group providing legal assistance to "persecuted Christians" in Pakistan.
Police in the provincial Bahawalnagar district charged Shamim, a mother of a five-month-old girl, after neighbours accused her of uttering remarks against the Prophet Muhammad, rights investigators said.
In Pakistan, such an act is punishable by life imprisonment or death under internationally cricized blasphemy legislation.
Her husband, Bashir Masih, and other family members have reportedly said that the young woman was "trapped in the case" by relatives who opposed her devotion to Christianity and refusal to embrace Islam.
NEIGHBOR COMPLAINS
Eventually, her neighbor and a friend complained about the Christian to the local Imam, identified as Syed Azhar Ali Shah. The Voice said. The imam and the two men reportedly went to local police who deteined the woman shortly after midnight in February.
"She cries in police lockups and pray to the Lord for her freedom from these false accusation of blasphemy so that she may breath in the open air with her daughter," Christians said.
Lawyers involved in the case have complained that the case will take time, despite an apparent lack of evidence against the Christian.
Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five not related to the other accussed woman, has been held since 2009 on blasphemy charges.
She has appealed against her death sentence.
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