During the recent days of battle in the northwest region of the Swat Valley, minority groups are leaving as quickly as possible. Although the majority of religious minorities in the Swat Valley are ethnic Pushtuns, with Sunni religious beliefs, Christian minority women and their families are also part of the fleeing force of refugees.

As violence continues between 4,000 Taliban splinter groups and Islamabad soldiers in the conflict of war, Christian minority refugees, global rescue agencies and Pakistan’s own army leaders nervously wait to see who, in the end, will end up controlling the region. Some Christian women and their families will be forced to stay behind as they have been unable to leave due to the expense of travel. Those who join the 100 degree Fahrenheit refugee camps also face problems with the sharing in handouts of food, an activity that is usually segregated among Sikhs, Hindus and Christians.

“Christian, Hindu and Sikh families have been forced to flee because the Taliban imposed on them Jizia, a tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule,” said Catholic Archbishop, Lawrence John Saldanha, in a letter released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “Now minority communities in the province are forced to endure unemployment, intimidation and migration,” continued the Archbishop’s message.

90% of Pakistani Christians live in Punjab with 50% living in rural villages. “Less than 2% of Pakistanis are Christians,” says a 2008 CNS – Catholic News Service report, although this number has been more recently set by United Nations agencies at a larger 4%. Half of Pakistan’s Christian minority population is Catholic, the other half Protestant.

Pakistan’s religious minorities

Minority religions and sectarian groups in Pakistan come from a vast collection of religious diversity which includes Christians, Buddhists, Ahmadis, Zikris, Hindus, Kalasha, Parsis, Sikhs and Shia Muslim sects, including Ismailis and Bohras. Ethnic regional groups come from 5 different communities, including the Baloch, Huhajir, Punjabis, Pushtuns and Sindhis.

Although 25% of religious minority women are not considered disadvantaged, Christian minority women who live on the bottom of society face many untold limitations. A policy of “living invisibly” with family members is often the only answer for protection for many minority Christian families who suffer under the great specter of poverty in Pakistan.

A survey of Christian minority women in society:

When a 2006 University of Birmingham, UK study was conducted among a wide span of Christian minority women in Pakistan, all women did mention that they had experienced what they called Muslim “name calling.” One derogatory name which is used commonly in Pakistan is “sweeper” which refers to the “worst of all” – a dalit Christian.

Both educated and uneducated Christian women admitted that they had been asked numerous times by others if they would convert to Islam. Some also experienced reverse discrimination when they befriended someone Muslim, as some of their Christian friends criticized them. One student said that her marks at school were lowered when her teacher realized she was Christian, but she also added her experience was, “not that difficult.”

Those who come from much greater disadvantaged backgrounds, on the other hand, shared much more serious grievances.

Women from disadvantaged backgrounds described how legal and police protection systems in Pakistan had failed minorities. For a few, this included their own experience or someone they knew who had experienced rape, assault or torture as Police forces did little to nothing to help them. In contrast, one woman who had police fail to protect her and her family, admitted enthusiastically that the Muslim owner of the factory where she worked “very happily” gave her a position of “influence” at her workplace.

“The general attitude in Pakistan is that if you are rich you are respectable and if you are poor you are not,” said another woman interviewed. Consensus in attitudes among all the women pointed to feelings that the less educated and “poorer” Muslims were, the more like they were to act from a “habit of discrimination.”

Kazia Ghazal Bhatti
Human Rights Activist
Karachi – Pakistan

Other articles by Ghazal Bhatti

8 Steps to Effective Christian Leadership (Ghazal Bhatti)

As a Christian leader, you are held to high moral, ethical, and social standards. As a leader, you are held to high standards, but as a Christian leader, that bar is raised even higher. Why? Because both the Christian and non-Christian social environment has tended to expect that Christians measure up to their self-proclaimed moral and ethical standards, as they rightly should. What can you do to be sure you ‘stand up to the test’ in the area of Christian leadership?
Read full detail ...

Christmas feelings - feelings of love within created by happiness and Christmas feelings created first in others (Ghazal Bhatti)

Christmas feelings - feelings of special blessings received from God - feelings of higher happiness felt within ...millions enjoy Christmas feelings NOW these days, millions even enjoy the very same true Christmas feelings all year long, day after day and Billions are too busy in filing lawsuits, pursuing lawsuits, planning or executing revenge and punishment.
Read full detail ...

We are Sorry....Mr. Jinnah (Ghazal Bhatti )

Sixty-two years ago, one day you said, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan, made one of the most important speeches of his - and of the history. A speech in which he laid out - in the most unambiguous terms - his vision for Pakistan and the rationale for that vision.
Read full detail ...

New Articles

Psychology of Persecuted Christians in Pakistan (Naeem Harry)

Pakistan is going through a serious moral turmoil, and Pakistani Christians are being targeted in this moral and spiritual turmoil. The continuous persecution of Christians in Pakistan is making them suffer from many psychological dis-eases. This moral turmoil is also making them suffer from spiritual distress. Their questions needs to be answered, if not answered they need to be listened, so that they are able to explore their emotional and spiritual pains.
Read full detail ...

Matriarchal Society of Harrapa and Pakistan (Naeem Harry)

Between the years 3000 BC and 1500 BC, a unique civilization flourished in the Indus Valley that covered an area larger than modern Pakistan. This was an empire called the Harappan Empire whose people were called Dravidians. The major cities were Harappa and Mohanjodaro whose features were unique for those days because they included well- planned brick streets, drainage and large baths for ritual cleaning. Housing varied from two-room structures to large two-storied houses with courtyards.
Read full detail ...

Reflection: - Empowering the Youth (Friar Bernard Y Bhatti OFM)

I firmly believe that the youth have a great role to play in any country, nation. It does not matter what they are, what language, color, or geographical background they come from. They have the power, energy, and potential to change and to transform their world for better or for worse.
Read full detail ...

Divided we fall (Nasir Saeed)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said recently that relations between the US and Pakistan had reached a turning point after the killing of Osama bin Laden and that Pakistan needed to take “decisive” steps in the days ahead to fight terrorism. As always, Pakistan is confused and divided on this and many other issues which need our urgent attention as we seek to take solid steps to resolve them. These issues have become a chronic disease but unfortunately, almost without realising, we have become involved in a blame-game and the rest of the world is looking at us amid increasing trust deficit.
Read full detail ...

Governor's murder deepens fears of Pakistani Christians (Michael Georgy)

To understand why Pakistani Christians feel so threatened by growing Muslim extremism in their country, speak to the uniformed police guard at the jail where a Christian woman is on death row, accused of blasphemy.
Read full detail ...