Pakistan: When a blasphemy accusation is evidence; the sentence often death

A Lahore woman barely escaped with her life. But the problems run deeper than the mob that nearly lynched her.

The Pakistani city of Lahore is famous for a great many things: beautiful Mughal architecture, delicious street food, eye-pleasing greenery and, of late, air pollution that ranks amongst the worst in the world.

But as dangerous as that last distinction is, Lahore recently avoided being known for something far worse: mob lynching.

Here’s what happened: A married couple was out shopping, peacefully going about their day, when a passer-by spotted something that he found offensive – in this case, the woman’s garments.

It’s not that her clothes were revealing — something frowned upon in this culture — or otherwise morally offensive to this worthy gentleman. No, he became enraged because, to his eyes, the woman was wearing a dress covered with Quranic verses.

Except he clearly couldn’t read Arabic.

The woman’s clothing certainly carried Arabic writing, but these were not derived from the Quran or any holy scripture. The product of a Kuwaiti design company, the calligraphy on the dress repeated the Arabic word “Hilwa”, which simply means “good” or “beautiful”.

And even if her dress did carry Quranic text, I venture a guess that the majority of Muslims would not support what happened next.

Unfortunately, though, when it comes to blasphemy in Pakistan, accusation is evidence, and the sentence is almost always death.

This was blasphemy, the man screamed in his ignorant self-righteousness. Soon a crowd gathered, and the woman was trapped in the shop as the mob called for her to be beheaded. Knives were drawn and bloodshed was but a moment away. Luckily, the shopkeepers and some other members of the public intervened in