Freedom of Worship
Asma Jahangir is the founder of the Human Rights Commission in
The introduction of the Blasphemy, Zina and Hudood Ordinances during the decade-long regime of General Zia-ul-Haq, generated a number of law suits in which Jahangir was involved. Her commitment led to her house arrest and she and her family received various death threats. One of the most controversial cases was her defense of Safia Bibi, a 13-year blind girl who was raped by her employer in 1983. Safia Bibi was accussed of adultery on the basis of the Zina Ordinance. Jahangir succeeded in annulling the verdict, which was the death penalty. Her defense of a 14-year-old boy, who received the death penalty on the accusation of blasphemy in 1995, led to intimidation of Jahangir and her family in
In 1988 she published Divine Sanction? The Hudood Ordinance and in 1992 Children of a Lesser God: Child Prisoners of