A 29- year-old Muslim woman in Pakistan has been sentenced to death by a local court under the country’s notorious blasphemy laws which has faced intense criticism by rights activists across the world. She had reportedly sent "blasphemous text message and caricature of Prophet Muhammad over messaging application WhatsApp. The convicted woman was arrested in May 2020 and charged with posting “blasphemous material” as her WhatsApp status, reported Dawn based on a summary issued by a sessions court.

The Rawalpindi session court on Wednesday ordered that the woman be “hanged by her neck till she is dead” along with a 20-year jail sentence and a fine of Rs200,000 ( roughly $1136).

Under Pakistani laws, the crime of blasphemy, if proved, is punished by a death sentence. A total of 80 people—up to half of them are already on death row—are currently in Pakistan on blasphemy charges.

In most cases, victims, often belonging to religious minorities, are falsely implicated, sometimes due to personal disputes with their neighbors from the majority community. Last year in December, a Sri Lankan Christian was lynched by an Islamist mob in the northern city of Sialkot. In April that year, two nurses were also charged under the same laws. [Read More]

Similarly, Aurat March, a movement led by progressive Pakistani women activists, was booked for opposing the laws. 

Western countries and rights activists have long been demanding that laws be repealed. However, under pressure from powerful religious groups and political parties, the government hasn’t been able to amend laws.

Last year, the European Commission had passed a resolution recommending the body to withdraw the Generalized System of Preference- Plus—under which Pakistan goods get duty-free access to the EU markets—if the country didn’t amend its blasphemy laws.