{"id":30109,"date":"2018-08-07T06:46:01","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T06:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=30109"},"modified":"2018-08-07T10:27:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T10:27:21","slug":"pakistan-god-shines-a-light-into-catholic-girls-fearful-existence-tabassum-yousef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/08\/07\/pakistan-god-shines-a-light-into-catholic-girls-fearful-existence-tabassum-yousef\/","title":{"rendered":"PAKISTAN: God shines a light into Catholic girl\u2019s fearful existence &#8211; Tabassum Yousef\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>PAKISTAN<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>God shines a light into Catholic girl\u2019s fearful existence<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dolly Sarwar Bhatti is an 11-years old Catholic girl. She is a fifth-grader in Karachi, Pakistan\u2019s largest city and her place of birth. In this interview to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, Dolly speaks of the everyday concerns of a young Christian girl from a poor family, living in a country where Christians are targeted by Islamic radicals, either through violence or by way of the country\u2019s infamous blasphemy law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cLast year I was very unhappy because my father fell ill; he suffered from hepatitis, and because of that he lost his job. Therefore, we have no money to pay our school fees; our teacher has taken our school bags into her custody. This is the saddest moment I ever experienced because I love to go school and study, but along with my younger sister and brother, I just can\u2019t right now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cEven though we passed our exams, we have to stay home. The teacher has told us we can\u2019t even get our exam results and we might even miss the start of new classes next year; we also have no money to buy books. My maternal grandmother used to help us with food and also with our school fees, but she passed away. I pray to God that her soul may rest in peace.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cHowever God always help us and gives us strength. Even in this time of darkness, I can see the light by going to the church and reading the Bible. I regularly read the Bible and I go to church every afternoon. Those are moments of joy and happiness because I know that God does good things for us, and He helps us through His people. My mom and dad are always involved in this happiness. We pray regularly as a family. It is always my family that is my strength; I always feel that\u00a0God is with me and He has never ever forsaken me or my family\u2014even though we are passing through hard times. I always keep my Bible with me and read passages, which always gives me strength and happiness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe area where we are living is not safe at all, because the majority of the inhabitants of this area are Pathan people, and many of them are involved in both terrorism and drug trafficking. This country is not safe because of all the terrorism and bombings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThese days, Christians are not safe in Pakistan, particularly girls, who are often victims of rape and murder. For that reason, we never leave the house without our parents and we do not get to play outside at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI don\u2019t personally know anyone someone who has been accused of blasphemy but I was very touched by the news of that Christian couple who were burned alive by the mob, and I just heard a story about a Christian boy named Sajid who was tortured by Muslims. This is very bad news; more such news comes from our school friends and relatives. I am often afraid; I fear that someone might accuse my father, mother, or myself because it is an easy way to target someone in this country. \u201cWe can freely worship in our church in the area and we haven\u2019t experienced any violence, but at the gate of our church, there are always two youngsters checking that\u00a0no one who enters the church creates violence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cOften, in the area where I live with my family, and also at school, I experience discrimination, even though it is a missionary school. Muslim boys and girls\u00a0always treat Christian girls as \u2018cheap,\u2019 which means they don\u2019t want to drink water from the same tap from which Christian girls drink and they don\u2019t want to sit anywhere near me or other Christian girls. \u201cAt the previous school I attended, one run by the government, I felt very uncomfortable because of some of the textbooks; they referred to non-Muslims in ways that upset me. For example, there is the word <em>kafir<\/em>, which means non-believer, referring to someone Muslims don\u2019t want to sit close to or eat with. But still, I love my county because my family and my uncles and aunts live here. I wish we could all move to another country, where we can be more respected and enjoy free education; where my family and I would be safe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI want to become a stewardess. I still have faith that my life will be a successful life because I&#8217;m a good student and I&#8217;m a child of God. Yes, as a Christian I have hope that the world will become more peaceful and I so wish that for my country as well. \u201cOther countries and our own leaders show little interest in helping solve our problems. No one is helping solve the problem of poverty and lack of education. If they would help us in the field of education, there would no double standard. The level of education in government schools is very poor, compared to private schools whose fees are so high that only the wealthy can afford to go there. Even the fees for missionary schools are high.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThere are Christians in the West? I thought that only Muslims were living in the West; but if that is so, why do those Christians not come here to relieve our problems? If Christian children don\u2019t get a good education they won\u2019t be able to apply for respectable jobs and they will be obliged to do very humble jobs, like sweeping streets and cleaning gutters. My favourite prayers in scary times are &#8220;Our Father in Heaven&#8221; and &#8220;Hail Mary.\u201d These prayers always give me strength. If I would get a chance to talk to world leaders, I would only ask them to create peace in the world. No one in the world should be killed by bombs or blasphemy accusations!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Tabassum Yousef<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PAKISTAN God shines a light into Catholic girl\u2019s fearful existence \u00a0 Dolly Sarwar Bhatti is an 11-years old Catholic girl. She is a fifth-grader in Karachi, Pakistan\u2019s largest city and her place of birth. In this interview to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, Dolly speaks of the everyday concerns of a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PAKISTAN: God shines a light into Catholic girl\u2019s fearful existence - Tabassum Yousef\u00a0 - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/08\/07\/pakistan-god-shines-a-light-into-catholic-girls-fearful-existence-tabassum-yousef\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PAKISTAN: God shines a light into Catholic girl\u2019s fearful existence - Tabassum Yousef\u00a0 - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PAKISTAN God shines a light into Catholic girl\u2019s fearful existence \u00a0 Dolly Sarwar Bhatti is an 11-years old Catholic girl. 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