Eternity’s Tess Holgate spoke to a Pakistani Christian woman (name withheld for safety reasons) who fled with her family to Sydney last year to escape religious persecution in her home country.
Tell me about yourself.
My husband and I both came from Christian families. We gave our lives to Christ at a very young age. I belonged to a very strong Christian family.
We were married in 1982. I’m a dentist; my husband is a general surgeon. When we got married we worked in mission hospitals in Pakistan.
We have 3 boys and we live in Sydney. The two younger boys and I joined my husband in Sydney last year in May. But my husband came to Sydney in 2009.
Why did you come to Australia?
In 2007 we were working in the North Western Province of Pakistan. On Saturday 8th December my husband was going from the hospital to one of the clinics where he was supposed to see some women. It was a church clinic with the diocese.
On his way there he was kidnapped by the Taliban. And he was held by the Taliban for 25 days. They wanted to convert him to Islam, and wanted us to pay a ransom. Thanks to God, we didn’t have to pay a single penny.
In 2009 he came to Australia. His brother and sister lived in Sydney so they thought that it would be nice for him to come over here. He came and they assisted him to stay here. It was not safe for him any longer over there.
Were you at risk from the Taliban too?
Yes. Yes, they knew about each and every person who was related. They knew that our eldest son was in the UK, and they knew about his brother living in Sydney. Because they said to him, “you can ask your family and they can give you money for the ransom”. They knew each and every detail.
We were working in the frontier in Northern Pakistan but our hometown was in Hyderabad which is in Southern Pakistan. They knew those places as well; they knew we had been in Hyderabad. So it was not safe for him to stay over there.
Were you ever threatened?
Yes we were threatened. After he came back they used to call us and used to enquire about him. We had to live in hiding for some time.
It was very difficult to survive without him (after he came to Australia). But thanks to God, we had good support from the church. They really supported us.
Have you experienced any threats since you’ve been in Australia?
He has had a few calls from those people. They said that they released [him] because they thought he would go back to the hospital. When he was kidnapped there were Talibans in the hospital who were under his treatment. They said that [he] should be released so that [their] people should get treatment.
He was threatened, and we were threatened. Even our family members over there, they were threatened. We would like to bring them to Australia.
What’s it like to be a Christian in Pakistan?
Before 1978 it was all right. Christians were living very peaceful lives over there. But the dictator tried to impose Sharia Law in Pakistan and impose the blasphemy laws. Since then, this extremism came to Pakistan and it spread very rapidly. And these Islamic radicals now, they are really against Christians, and it’s very difficult. We were friends with Muslims and Christians – all the minorities and majorities – we were living in harmony, but nowadays it’s not [like that].
Do the churches meet in secret?
We can’t use music, especially loud music when the Muslims have their prayer time. There are times when we have to be quiet and have secret prayer meetings. We are not allowed to build churches anymore.
Do you hope that one day you can go back?
Yes. But we’ll see how things go. We really want to serve in Pakistan. We have a burden for sharing the Word of God and helping out these people, bringing literacy to people.
Image: Flickr, Jankie, used under CC License.
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