In 2012, two French Muslim women sent complaints to the U.N. when a 2010 French law was enforced against them for wearing niqabs. A UN Committee of 18 international members ruled that these women in question have a religious right to wear the niqabs. “The State has not demonstrated how the full veil presents a threat in itself for public security to justify this absolute ban,” the decision read. The Committee has recommended the two women be compensated for the fines they had to pay, and that the 2010 law be reviewed.
The U.N. seems zealous about protecting religious rights. So, why has it not issued any statements or recommendations regarding Asia Bibi, a Christian woman in Pakistan who has been sentenced to death for violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws?
Her crime was that she drank from a communal cup of water as the sole Christian working in a field with three Muslim women. By doing this, Asia Bibi supposedly “contaminated” the cup.
Asia Bibi appealed the conviction. Having been in prison since 2009, she now awaits a final ruling from Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
Regarding human rights, the U.N. states the following: “Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression ... Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.”
Pakistan has been a member state of the U.N. since 1947. The U.N. maintains that one’s right to life is a human right to which everyone is entitled, without discrimination. So, why has the U.N. remained silent on Asia Bibi? She is a Pakistani woman whose right to life is being threatened by a severe and controversial religious law that violates her own freedom of opinion and expression as a Christian.
Recall that, in 2017, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the U.S. to end its “barbaric practice” of the death penalty. “The death penalty has no place in the 21st century,” he said.
So, where is Guterres now? Does he not know about this situation? For a man so vehemently opposed to the death penalty, it is highly unusual that he has yet to utter a single word regarding Asia Bibi.
If Antonio Guterres thinks it is his job to criticize the United States for the death penalty, then he should be consistent and criticize Pakistan for the same.
It is disillusioning, to say the least, that the U.N. will readily speak up in defense of a woman’s religious right to cover her face, but remain utterly silent when a woman’s very life hangs in the balance because of her own faith. If the U.N. does not stand for Asia Bibi, then what on earth does it stand for?
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/the-uns-scary-silence-on-asia-bibis-blasphemy-case
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