This Christian mother didn't do any harm to anybody but still she suffered an intensely painful, humiliating, shocking and unwarranted punishment: being beaten and gang-raped in front of her five children by a group of Muslim men in Pakistan.
Samrah Badal fell victim to a Muslim man who was seeking to avenge his family's "honour" after the woman's sister fell in love and eloped with the man's brother who belonged to a very influential family in the city.
Fides News Agency learned of the attack last week from Christian lawyer Aneeqa M. Anthony, coordinator of the NGO "the Voice Society."
Anthony said the angry Muslim man and his henchmen went to Badal's home in Lahore to ask her on the whereabouts of the eloped couple. But Badal kept her mouth shut.
Angered by her show of disdain, the unidentified Muslim man and his gang mates beat and stripped her naked and dragged her out on the streets where she was brutally raped in front of her five children.
Anthony noted that the attack on the innocent Christian woman by a Muslim mob was just one of many such attacks that have taken place in Pakistan, where many of the culprits have remained unpunished by the authorities.
One rare incident occurred just last month when a Christian man reportedly beat his own sister to death because he disapproved of the man she wanted to marry.
It was the first reported honour killing involving Christians in Pakistan in recent memory, according to International Christian Concern's Regional Manager for South Asia William Stark.
"After hearing about this killing, I called a contact of mine in Pakistan and asked him about it. He said that it was the first time he had heard of a 'Christian honour killing' in Pakistan in his 14 years working as a human rights activist," Stark told The Christian Post. "Overall, Christians do not follow the practice of honour killing in Pakistan, which is why this killing is so shocking."
Also last June, a Muslim mother was reported to have killed her teenage daughter by burning her to death because she eloped with her lover and married without consent, shaming her family. It was the third reported case of honour killing in Pakistan for the month of June alone.
