PAKISTAN: Child Beaten for Claiming to Be a Christian

Nadia explained the circumstances: “Our teacher was teaching us about the culture of Pakistan and Pakistani people and quoted a sentence from a text book saying ‘We are Pakistani and all of us are Muslims’. At this point I interrupted and said, ‘Madam, I am also a Pakistani, but not a Muslim. Instead I am a Christian.’” Reportedly, the teacher was enraged and began hitting Nadia with a bamboo until, said classmates, the girl briefly lost consciousness. As she beat her young pupil, the teacher is reported to have kept saying that all Pakistanis are Muslims and “You are not a Pakistani but a Christian. Your homeland is somewhere in Europe or America.”

Nadia was taken home and later to the doctor. When interviewed by journalists on 11 October she was bed-ridden and her back was scarred. Nadia’s father, Iftikhar Masih, explained that he could not go to the police about the incident because “I am an impoverished Christian man and am busy working for a daily wage to feed my family.” Being poor and being a Christian are both serious disadvantages for anyone seeking justice from the Pakistani police. 

Source: Barnabus Fund