TY  - BOOK
AU  - Bibi, Asia
TI  - Blasphemy : the true, heartbreaking story of a woman sentenced to death over a cup of water
SN  - 9781844088881
U1  - 297.5695092 
PY  - 0000///Virago
CY  - London
PB  - 2012
KW  - Women death row inmates
KW  - Pakistan
KW  - Religious discrimination
KW  - Blasphemy (Islam)
KW  - Christian biography
KW  - Christian women
KW  - death row inmates
N2  - Punjab, Pakistan, June 2009. The temperature is 45° and Asia has been out picking fruit for several hours. It's exhausting, sweaty work, but Asia and her husband have five children to feed. At midday she goes to the nearest well, picks up a cup and takes a long drink of cool water. She refills the cup, drinks some more and then offers it to another woman. Suddenly one of her fellow workers cries out that the water belongs to the Muslim women and that with her actions, Asia - who is Christian - has contaminated it. An argument ignites and in an instant, with one word, Asia's fate is sealed. 'Blasphemy!' someone shouts. In Pakistan this is a charge punishable by death. First attacked by a mob, Asia was soon after thrown into prison and then sentenced to be hanged. Since then she has been kept in a windowless cell. Her family have had to flee their village, under threat from vengeful extremists. In the wave of accusation that followed, only two public figures came to
ER  -