Girl accused of blasphemy for a spelling error
It may have been a mere misplaced dot that led to accusations of blasphemy against a Christian eighth-grader, whose miniscule error led to her expulsion from school and uproar amongst local religious leaders.
Faryal Bhatti, a student at the Sir Syed Girls High School in Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) colony Havelian, erroneously misspelt a word in an Urdu exam while answering a question on a poem written in praise of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The word in question was ‘laanat’ instead of ‘naat’ – an easy error for a child to make, as the written versions of the words are similar.
According to the school administration and religious leaders who took great exception to the hapless student’s mistake, the error is ‘serious’ enough to fall within the realm of blasphemy, Saturday.
Spelling out her punishment
On Thursday, Faryal’s Urdu teacher was collecting the answer sheets from her students when she noticed the apparently offensive word on her pupil’s sheet. The teacher, Fareeda Bibi, reportedly summoned the Christian girl, scolded her and beat her. Her punishment, however, did not end here. When Faryal’s class fellows learnt of the alleged blasphemy, the teacher brought the principal’s notice to the matter, who further informed the school management.
In the meanwhile, the news spread throughout the colony. The next day, male students of the POF colony school as well as certain religious elements took out a rally, demanding the registration of a criminal case against the eighth-grader and her expulsion from the area.
Prayer leaders within the community also condemned the incident in their Friday sermons, asking the colony’s administration to not only take action against Faryal but her entire family. In the wake of the increasing tensions, Managing Director POF Colony Havelian Asif Siddiki called a meeting of colony-based ulemas and school teachers to discuss the situation. The girl and her mother were asked to appear before the meeting, where they explained that it was a mere error, caused by a resemblance between the two words. The two immediately apologised, adding that Faryal had no malicious intentions.
In a move that was apparently meant to pacify the religious elements clamouring for action against the teenage ‘blasphemer’, the POF administration expelled her from the school on Saturday. Faryal was not the only one who got in trouble for her spelling error, however, as her mother, Sarafeen Bhatti, who was a staff nurse at the POF Hospital Havelian for several years, was immediately transferred to POF Wah Cantonment Hospital.
Decision applauded
While talking to The Express Tribune, Maulana Alla Dita Khateeb of Gol Masjid praised the decision of the POF colony administration, claiming that he had personally seen the answer sheet in question. He further went on to say that he had met the girl himself, who had apologised for the word used in error. Asked whether the incident still fell within the realm of blasphemy and whether Faryal deserved expulsion when she had misspelt the word unintentionally, Khateeb said that although he was unclear about the intentions of the girl, the word she had used was sacrilegious.
The managing director of POF Colony was not available for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2011.
COMMENTS (464)
@MSQ: It is not useless because the world is watching, learning, and people are coming together against corrupt governments (yes, my own included). I offer my strength to this poor girl and to all who suffer worldwide. May we develop intelligence through education and know peace. <3
In Pakistan the blind lead the blind. Any uneducated man can decide he is a true man of god and his word may stand to hold more force then that of the law. if the prophet forgave slights against his person by non muslims, who are these people to decide what is blasphemous and what isnt. That is for god to take offense to...not man.
yes Pakistan is in the stongeages...and yes...our posts do nothing to elevate it from its state of despair.
Just a couple of points worth mentioning. Anthony Permal mentioned almost from day one that the CIA-RAW-Mossad were involved in Faryal's blasphemy case. He omitted to mention the really bad guys in MI6. The second point, and this is the important one, has Faryal's teacher, Fareeda Bibi, who caused all the trouble in the first place been brought to book over this, and has she apologized?
The Ottoman Empire had it right. Send them all on free trip to Haaj, except send them on a lovely cruise. All of them. Then bomb the crap out of it. It'll be forgotten after one generation then we'll all be able to get on with living normally.
A nation which imposes laws which refutes logic and where irrationality and supersition prevails is destined to go backward.No wonder why pakistan is having low progress both economically and culturally, People are looking backward.
I am not really certain whether Pakistan children are all potential Ph.D. candidates or not? However, when reading comments by people such as Maulana Alla Dita Khateeb of Gol Masjid, who said that he had examined Faryal's exam paper and found it sacrilegious, I am starting to wonder. My knowledge of Urdu is extremely limited, but Faiz (Sept. 26) appeared to explain quite succinctly the difference between LANNAT and NAAT, and if he is correct the difference is one tiny wriggle-like character with a pen. Although, as some nauseatingly religious people have explained, most people of Faryal's age would know the wriggle difference between Lannat and Naat, they have not explained the psychological pressures which build up under exam conditions, and lead on to errors occurring. Further to this I have found quite often that not only do I make spelling and punctuation errors, I sometimes leave out a whole word, which changes the entire point of what I am attempting to portray, and I am certain many other people do also, without any malicious intent. Summing up, I thought when I went to school some 60 odd years ago that some of my teachers were a little tough, and have felt somewhat mentally bruised ever since, but upon re-examining my situation I now realize how fortunate I am that I was not sent to Faryal's school. Better still, Maulana Alla Dita Khateeb was not reviewing my written work.
@Pieter van Lieshout: dear sir, "laanat" means 'cursing someone' and "naat" means 'words said in praise of our Prophet PBUH'...hope that make u understand the situation.
Obama, you are the same supporting that it is right to kill for blasphemy to prevent the spread of fire? Do not see what crime is the only think that a girl have to be so severely punished for something so meaningless? That's why your country is considered in the third world (rather in the fourth)
The funny part is how such "so called innocent mistakes" are always made by Christians and not Muslims!
I was in eight grade once too! I was not stupid and neither was I naive! The girl should have known better! Furthermore the paper was an urdu paper and not an english paper. Hence simply saying that LA ( dot) Naat was the mistake is down right stupid! The paper was not in english! Try spelling the same thing in urdu and you will understand exactly what i mean! It was not an innocent mistake and an eight grader is not an innocent child!
Ask any real teacher what he/she thinks about eight grade students! They are not children in this day and age anymore! We knew everything. We knew about all the taboos of our society and we were by no means innocent by then!
It can never be a deliberate thing. Minorities in the country know that they live amongst radicals or extremists. They are sure to do any such act would be suicidal, they matter could have been well settled if that teacher proved semblance with intellects. Poor handling of matters is a grave problem in the country. The case of Asia bibi is an example too. Pakistan has a good combination of radicals, fools, and illiterate and anti americanism adds fuel to the fire. True facts never come to the surface and people never tend to investigate whether or not it is a blasphmey.
what are some open ended questions in this article that would start a great argument
Shame on Moulana,,, I agree with Hashmi, its worse than ” P A T H E T I C “, my sympathies for poor little girl and the family. We need to reign in those bearded men, taking our societies control, and heading us into complete trouble.
Just one word " P A T H E T I C "
The rising extremism can not be controlled by just condemning on blogs and English papers.It requires sincere and well thought process to stop it at first and then get it back to its zero position. English papers are mostly read by minority in Pakistan but our national Urdu media never dare to highlight any such issue due to fear of backlash.It is however responsibility of state to take swift actions to reverse this rising trend of extremism,otherwise it will reach to every one's door step sooner or later.
The face of Pakistan is not represented by the 2% extremists that make part of the news with whatever they continue doing. It is up to the other 98% people of Pakistan that are nowhere in the picture to tell the real story. Its people like myself who know things are going wrong but are too laid back to do something about it. We may be living on this land, but it seems to have been hi-jacked by people and forces that have no real connection to the country.
We feel sorry for the young girl, it is a mistake anyone could have made. We do not divide on the base of cast, color or religion. Islam's teaching clearly forbid us from any such things and so does humanity. It doesn't matter what religion the girl belongs to, she is one other child belonging to this country and has equal right and representation.
... utter sense of insecurity ...
Although I am well educated, possess reasonably good English skills, and went through to university level, I never fail to be amazed at mistakes I have made when I re-read what I have written. Obviously, I would makes spelling and grammatical errors under exam conditions. It is interesting to note that some comments are unforgiving when they say that "Faryal could not have made the mistake", when she explained that it was a mistake. In answer to those people who think they are perfect, I can only quote a famous Eastern poet who once said, "Anyone who does not know and does not know that he does not know is stuck forever in double ignorance".
let's ask that maulana sahab to write it and other such words and see how many mistakes he makes!
@Anthony Permal: i totally agree with you, brother.
I have my deepest sympathies for the poor and innocent girl and her family. These xenophobic have no respect for religion and the poor countrymen. But their sanctimonious character is not just hurting the minorities but even the believers of the same faith. One such incident happened to a doctor who was not accommodating a Medical sales Rep. The salesman was requesting the doctor to allow him some time to make a sales call and put his visiting card on doctor's desk. The doc on the contrary was reluctant to give time time and out of desperation throw away his visiting card in the dustbin. Incidentally, the sales rep name had some religious connotation which was good enough a reason for the dejected salesman to call it a case of blasphemy.
We all need to put our acts together against these fanatics who are leveraging religion for their personal vendettas.
It has been the nature of the muslim nowadays that if they are doing mistake they dont bother but if the annnocent girl did mistak so it leads to blasphemy. sham on us. when we will become a good muslime to play a leading role ? If she has done mistake intentionally so how we are to ask her.she is also creature of ALLAH and its the right of our ALLLAH to ask her and this duty dont assign to us .
erroneously ? You can never misspell "naat" as "laanat". One in a million chance that it wasn't a deliberate execution.
@Fatima: i agree with you.
@MUNIB: i totally agree with you, brother.
In retrospect Faryal should consider herself lucky she was not an italian in the 16th century. If you countered dogma deliberately in the Christian religion at that time the Vatican had a few rather unique ways of punishing the culprit. One punishment that comes to mind is were the executioner smashed every bone in your legs and then made you crawl to the stake were you burnt to death. I suppose that mankind has improved a little on those times in some ways. However, in case Muslims are feeling a little embarrassed about what they did to Faryal, it pales into insignificance compared to what the Western powers have been doing in the Middle East.
@Pieter van Lieshout: Dear Sir, Naat is a poetic tribute to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the word "Laanat" means to be damned. These words when written in the urdu language have the mere difference of a single dot. These crazy fundos have a habit of blowing everything out of proportion just to show themselves as very important. We need to shun such people and their interpretation of Islam.
@Muhammad Waqas Luqman: Dear Muhammad, I have constantly noticed that people writing comments appear to massacre the English language, with grammatical and spelling mistakes, but I still understand what they are trying to portray.. I am sure that most of the people making mistakes are adults, but I am not critical of them. They are having a go. You in fact, made several mistakes which were comparable, in English, to "Lannat" and "Naat", and in an English exam you would be lucky to get a "B". However, although I do not agree with what you said in regard to the technicalities of Urdu, you wrote a good, well thought out article. I think anybody with an iota of commonsense would have said to the young 8th grade, if it was a class test, "you made a mistake; make sure you do not do it again". End of story.