Shagufta Kausar was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy and spent over eight years in prison. She recently shared her story at the launching of the Religious Freedom in the World Report, in Rome.
In the summer of 2013, a mob broke into the simple house where Shagufta Kausar lived with her paralysed husband, Shafqat Emanuel, and their four children. Civilians and police were calling for her, accusing her of blasphemy. She and her husband were beaten and taken to the police station, where they were tortured.
They were told that Shagufta was charged with sending a blasphemous text message to none other than the president of the Pakistani Bar Association, a man who this poor Christian woman had never met in her life, and whose contact she did not have.
“This was simply persecution because of my faith, and this mob was chanting outside the police station: ‘Death for Shagufta and Shafqat Emanuel’,” Shagufta recently shared during a testimony at the launch of the Religious Freedom in the World Report, in Rome, organised by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). She was accompanied by her brother, who spoke in her name, as she is not fluent in English.
Despite the unlikelihood of the accusation, both Shagufta and her husband were sentenced to death and spent the following eight years in solitary confinement, in different prisons.
During those dark times her faith was often tested, but she remained firm, despite efforts by some groups of people to convert her. “At that time, I had a choice to be set free by simply denying Jesus. But I said, no, Jesus had died on the cross for my sins. I would not deny Him.”
Her time in prison was very hard on her health. She began to lose mobility in her limbs, and at one time lost the ability to talk. In despair, she prayed. “I asked the Lord to give me one chance at life, because I wanted to see my children again. Then I had a vision. I saw the Cross and I saw the Lord, and He healed me, and I bowed down and praised the Lord for the life that He gave me.”
With new vigour, Shagufta clung to prayer and to the Word of God, reading her Bible. “One day I was reading the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul and Silas are in prison and an earthquake opens the doors. Just as I was reading that I felt an actual earthquake. Everything was shaking and the guards were shouting. But after a while there was another sort of earthquake. There was a petition in Holland calling for me to be set free. Sixteen thousand people signed the petition in only one day, and it was delivered to the Embassy of Pakistan. And then the European Parliament approved a resolution, with over 600 votes, threatening Pakistan with repercussions if we were not released. This was a movement led not only by Christians, but also by many secular people. This was for us a miracle.”
Soon she and Shafqat Emmanuel were released and reunited with their children. They were given protection by the Pakistani Government and eventually left the country.
Although Shagufta and Shafqat are now free, they have not forgotten their compatriots who continue to suffer persecution in Pakistan. “Now we are doing advocacy work for our brothers and sisters who remain behind bars, because there are many who are still suffering.”
Shagufta’s was one of several first-hand testimonies of persecution at the official launch of the Religious Freedom in the World Report at the ACN-organised event in Rome. Following the conference, the Pakistani woman was given the opportunity to meet with Pope Leo XIV, during the Wednesday General audience, to whom she gave a copy of her book “Under Threat of Death: A Mother’s Faith in the Face of Injustice, Imprisonment, and Persecution”.
Following the meeting, Shagufta expressed her gratitude to ACN. “I am grateful to ACN International, which is an instrument of providence. I am deeply happy because my wish to meet the Holy Father became true. I thought I am not worthy to meet the Pope but you brought me here. I was praying for all of you and meeting with the Pope brought me God’s blessing. I was crying while meeting the Pope, because it’s really a blessing for all persecuted Christians in the world. May God bless all the ACN team and the benefactors.”
Pakistan is listed as a country of high persecution in the 2025 Religious Freedom in the World Report. Christians and other religious minorities are often harassed and the country’s infamous blasphemy law is misused for personal vendettas, resulting in situations of grave injustice.
