She has now been released from jail.

Observers who've watched the Bibi's story unfold over the past eight years say the Pakistani Supreme Court's decision to acquit the mother of five of blasphemy charges marks a major step toward making the country a more modern, tolerant nation.

In 2009 Bibi was charged with blasphemy after fetching water for herself and fellow workers on a hot summer day. Two women refused to drink from the same container as a Christian. The following year Bibi was sentenced to death.

According to the blasphemy laws in Pakistan's Penal Code, insulting the Prophet Muhammad is a crime punishable by death. Offending the ‎Koran, Islam's holy book, incurs life imprisonment.

After speaking to Bibi's 18-year old daughter about Bibi's release, John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need (UK), said:

"We have to salute the courage of the justices in reaching this decision in the face of huge opposition from powerful extremists mobs. This really is a victory for justice, a triumph of honesty and truth over tyranny and oppression.

"For so many thousands of people who have prayed for Asia, this is a long-awaited day. We need to continue praying because now is the most delicate time.

"So many extremists want her dead and as the process towards her release gets underway, security concerns will be acute. Her family - indeed everyone associated with her - is in danger."

Evangelical Christian writer and teacher Krish Kandiah spoke of his joy at Bibi's release and concern for Pakistan:

"This is fantastic news. Asia Bibi is to be freed. Please pray for peace in Pakistan as the nation responds to the news."

Father Bernard Cervellera, head of Asia News for Crux Now, says the decision to acquit Bibi "is something big," and is proof that there are groups in Pakistan, even among Muslims, "who want a more modern Pakistan, more tied to the origins of this country.

"It must be a country that allows people to be free to practise their religion more than a state religion."

Cervellera says the decision is also a show of courage from the judges, who sometimes cave under pressure from fundamentalist Islamic groups including death threats.

Source

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Image: Christian News Journal

Last week, the Lahore High Court upheld the sentence handed down in 2010 against Asia Bibi.

She is the first Christian woman ever to be given the death sentence in Pakistan.

One source expressed hope that the sentence would be overturned in the Supreme Court, which has reportedly never upheld a blasphemy charge.

Mrs Bibi, 50, was first arrested in 2009 in a village near Lahore, after colleagues claimed she had insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

This stemmed out of an argument she had with two other women in a fruit field over a drinking glass.

High profile Pakistani politicians Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti spoke up in her defence and were subsequently assassinated in 2011.

Taseer was killed by his own security guard and Bhatti by the Pakistani Taliban.

Mrs Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, said Muslim clerics attending the Lahore hearing had shouted out "blasphemer" and "kill her".

"I have not told my children about the court decision. How can I? I am too scared of their reaction - they are already very depressed. We all were expecting her to come home and now this happens," said Mr Masih.

A statement from the Cecil & Iris Chaudhry Foundation, a Catholic group named for a critic of Pakistan's blasphemy law, expressed disappointment in the ruling.

"We remain optimistic that the rule of law will prevail and justice will be done (when the appeal is heard in the Supreme Court). For now that is our only hope," said the statement by the Catholic advocacy group.

However, advocates for Mrs Bibi expressed fears that even if she is freed by the Supreme Court, extremists will be given tacit encouragement to pursue and kill her.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Christian Today
• Christian Today
• Image: Catholic Herald

"Instead of making noises, we would prefer to keep quiet and wait for the high court to hear her appeal," said Father Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, who directs the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan.

"We understand the concern behind such international campaigns," he said. "But the life of this woman is very important to us, and we will not do anything that would endanger her life."

Two prominent Pakistanis have died as a result of protesting against the blasphemy law.

The Muslim governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated for advocating a presidential amnesty for Bibi, and Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic who was federal minister for minority affairs, was assassinated after he initiated a clemency petition.

Bibi (also known as Asia Noreen) has been in prison since 2009 after some fellow farm workers complained she had made derogatory comments about the prophet Muhammad. In 2010 she was sentenced to death by hanging.

Pope Benedict is among those who have urged clemency for her.

According to French journalist Anne Isabelle Tollet, who has written a biography of Asia Bibi, even the woman's husband and five children are suffering from the blasphemy accusation.

"They are all living [under] the threat of death and have gone into hiding, frequently moving house and unable to go outside or to work. The children miss their mother badly and have stopped going to school for their own safety," she said.

The latest campaign for Bibi's release has come from Ooberfuse, a Christian pop band based in the United Kingdom. The award-winning band has produced a song called Free Asia Bibi, which can be downloaded from Ooberfuse.com.

Sources:

National Catholic Register

Catholic News Agency

Image: Voice of the Martyrs