INDEX ON CENSORSHIP   |   VOL.51   |   NO.3

An unholy war on speech

Blasphemy charges are on the rise in Pakistan – and they often come with a death sentence. SARAH MYERS reports

THERE WAS NO light when I first saw Salma Tanveer’s family. Her husband, Tanveer Ahmed, was using a smartphone to talk to translator and activist M Aman Ullah and me via Zoom. Where they were there were no windows, dusty concrete, a few dim light bulbs, and what seemed like people in desperate need of help.

Salma is a 50-year-old mother-of-two. In September 2021, she was sentenced to death by hanging for blasphemy.

She was first registered in a blasphemy case by police in 2013 for violating the Pakistan Penal Code, where she was found to be distributing material that claimed that she was the Holy Prophet.

“We were frequently visited by local clerics to give religious teachings to the children,” explained her husband. “Salma frequently took notes and wrote down the speeches the clerics would give to the children.”

One day, as Salma was writing the notes, the local clerics got hold of them to review what she had written. When

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