In the 2017 Malawat poisoning, seventeen Pakistanis in the village of Malawat died from poisoning allegedly stemming from a botched attempt to escape a forced marriage.
Around October 2017 police accused 21-year-old Aasia (alt. Asiya) [1] Bibi, her alleged boyfriend Muhammad Shahid, and her aunt [2] of conspiring to mix rat poison into Aasia's husband's milk. [3] According to the police, her husband refused the glass of milk, whereupon Aasia's mother-in-law innocently added the poisoned milk to a family vat, and used the milk in the vat the next day to make lassi (a yogurt drink) and butter. [3] The lassi was then served during a family gathering. [1] [4] The poisoned family members were first treated by a hakim (a local traditional doctor) but were subsequently hospitalized in the city of Multan. Of 27 participants who were hospitalized, 17 people died, including the 23-year-old husband, Muhammad Amjad. [2]
Initially, it was claimed that a lizard had fallen into the milk and poisoned it. [3] According to Jam Abdul Razzaq Klasra, a local police official, Ms. Bibi was the only person at the family gathering who did not drink the milk. During interrogation, Aasia allegedly confessed to poisoning the milk, and implicated her aunt and Shahid in the plot. Police have detained Aasia under antiterrorism laws. [2]
The couple had been married six months prior to the incident. Aasia has stated that she had begged her parents not to force her to marry, but her pleas were ignored. Police believe Aasia poisoned her husband to escape this forced marriage. Arranged marriages are common in rural Pakistan; offspring who attempt to defy an arranged marriage and instead "marry for love" are, in rare occasions, killed by family members. Salman Sufi, an aide in the Punjab provincial government, stated that conflicts centered on forced marriage often lead to "a severely fractured relationship between spouses or catastrophic aftereffects, like we witnessed in this case". [2] There is little legal remedy for women who reject a partner chosen for them by their family. [3]
According to The Telegraph, cases of poisoning are common in Punjab; as recently as September 2017, a newlywed couple were poisoned by the bride's family for unknown reasons. [3]
Bibi was convicted of the poisoning in November 2018 and sentenced to serve 15 life terms. Her boyfriend was also convicted and given multiple life sentences. [5]
Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later forced to stay in the marriage against their will.
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Aasia Begum, better known as simply Aasia, was a Pakistani film actress who was active in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
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Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death over a Cup of Water is a book by French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet and Aasiya Noreen better known as Asia Bibi. It is about the real-life story of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death after being convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court, in 2010 and is in jail in solitary confinement. She was tried after a dispute over drinking water with her Muslim neighbours after she drank water from the same cup as her Muslim neighbours in a rural village in the Sheikhupura District of Punjab, Pakistan in which she was accused of allegedly insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a charge she has denied. The book was dictated by Asia Bibi, an illiterate and mother of five, to her husband from jail
Khadim Hussain Rizvi was a Pakistani Islamic author and the founder of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, a political-religious organization founded in 2015, known to protest against any change to Pakistan's blasphemy law.
Do Bol previously titled Aseer e Mohabbat is a 2019 Pakistani romantic drama television series that premiered on ARY Digital from 5 March 2019 to 5 May 2019. It is directed by Syed Wajahat Hussain and written by Sarwat Nazir. Produced by Humayun Saeed and Shahzad Nasib under Six Sigma Plus in collaboration with Next Level Entertainment, it stars Hira Mani and Affan Waheed.
Aasia Bibi may refer to: