Martyred Christian Girl in Pakistan Reminds Us of the Dignity of Women

The martyrdom of Amariah Masih may be a foreboding sign of things to come

In a certain respect, Muslim and Western countries are not so different. While the experience of degradation may be more openly violent in places like Pakistan, it would seem women everywhere understand the degradation of being used. God has a much greater plan for women!

P>KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - According to the National Review, 18-year-old Amariah Masih was murdered on November 27, 2011. The small community where she lived in Pakistan is calling her a martyr. When I read about this young woman's death, I wondered if Westerners could understand, even if only faintly, what it is like for young Christian women to live in such an oppressive culture. And if we could, then what insight might we be able to gain from that understanding.

Amariah was a Catholic. She lived in the village of Tehsil Samundari, near Faisalabad in the Punjab province. There is no drinking water in the village where she lives, so Amariah and her mother, Razia Bibi, have to travel to a well some distance away. Their means of transportation is a motorbike. On this particular occasion they came upon a man and his accomplice.

So far no information has been reported on the accomplice. However, quite a bit is known about the man accused of  murdering Amariah. His name is Arif Gujjar, and he is a Muslim. He is the 28-year-old son of a wealthy, influential landowner. Arif supposedly has a notorious reputation for "misbehaving with girls from poor households." He has also been referred to as a drifter and a drug addict.

According to the article in the National Review, when Amariah and her mother came upon Arif, he and his accomplice took their motorbike. Then Arif grabbed Amariah at gunpoint and tried to drag her away. Reports are confusing about what happened next.

One report indicates that Amariah resisted, and Arif shot her on the spot, killing her instantly. Then he took her body in order to hide her corpse. But according to another report, Amariah's mother said her daughter was kidnapped by Arif and his accomplice. Amariah resisted, so the men beat her up. The next day her father found her lying dead in a field. She had two bullet holes in her, one in the chest and the other in the abdomen.

Regardless which report is more accurate, she is dead. Amariah's funeral was presided over by Fr. Zafal Iqbal. He said, "She is a martyr. . . . " In order to understand why she is being hailed as a martyr, we need to know something about Pakistan's culture and sharia law.

Apparently, when a woman is raped in Pakistan, she can be put in jail for "unlawful sex." Furthermore, her release from jail is contingent upon her agreeing to marry her rapist. To further complicate matters, according to sharia law, it is not lawful for a Muslim to marry a Christian. Therefore, if the victimized woman is a Christian, she must not only be willing to marry her rapist, she must also renounce her faith and convert to Islam.

This is why Amariah is being called a martyr. She was not just fighting for her honor, but for her Christian faith. It should not be surprising for us to learn that such injustice is common in Pakistan. Fr. Khalid Rashid Asi, General Vicar of the Catholic Diocese of Faisalabad, said that "Cases like these occur daily in Punjab. It is very sad; Christians, often girls, are helpless victims."

How are Westerners to understand the degradation and injustice that young Christian women experience living in such an oppressive culture when our culture and our frame of reference are so different? For instance, aren't Western women far more liberated and protected in the West? Yes and no.

In Western culture, promiscuity is treated as a right and an expression of freedom. But when we take a close look at how this so-called freedom has manifested itself in our culture, we do not see evidence of meaningful liberation. Rather, we find women being humiliated and degraded. This is evident throughout our culture. It is especially evident in pornography and the vulgar lyrics in some rap music.

It also appears to be increasingly evident among our youth. After some adolescent girls blossom into beautiful young women, we see their splendor quickly fade. One day their faces are filled with radiant hope and innocence. The next day, they look tired and worn. Some look distrusting and hardened. It seems these kind of changes often happen to young women when they are constantly being sought after and used, and when they no longer feel loved or cared for or safe.

In a certain respect, then, Muslim and Western countries are not so different. While the experience of degradation may be more openly violent in places like Pakistan, it would seem women everywhere understand the degradation of being used like a cheap object. This shared experience yields an important insight: This is not God's plan for women!

Each human soul is worth more than the entire universe because it is precious in God's sight and destined to enter into God's own triune life of love for eternity. Yet, God gave women a unique dignity which was not given to men. Blessed John Paul II discuses this unique dignity in his Apostolic Letter, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women. A partial summary of his reasoning is as follows:

Human beings are the only creatures created by God for their own sake; however, because they are created in the image of God they can only find themselves through the sincere gift of self. Although we image God as individuals and in various associations, we most fully image Him in the union of man and woman. Consequently, the dignity of women is closely connected with the love given to them and also with the love they give in return.

The love to be given to women is described in Ephesians, chapter five. It says that Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. Blessed John Paul II says this kind of love affirms women as persons on a fundamental level and makes it possible for the female personality to develop fully and be enriched.

Women return this love in a profound sense by being open to motherhood. Women are naturally--physically and psychologically--constituted in their femininity or disposed to motherhood--conception, pregnancy and giving birth resulting from marital union. So "Motherhood is linked to the personal structure of women and to the personal dimension of the gift [of love]."

Blessed John Paul II further explains that the mutual gift of self in marriage opens to the gift of life. By its very nature, motherhood entails a unique openness to a new person. He says this is precisely the woman's part--conception, and by being open to it, she finds herself through the sincere gift of self.

Moreover, women find their dignity and strength in the fact that God entrusts the human being to them in a special way as a direct result of their femininity. Those women who are aware of this dignity and the vocation they derive from it become "an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual strength for other people." Such women are owed much by their families and sometimes by their nations.

Whether the vocation of motherhood is lived out spiritually or temporally, it involves a special communion with the whole mystery of life, that is, the mystery of creation, redemption and the Church. Because Mary was "full of grace," she entered into this mystery more fully than any other human being in history, and her status as the Mother of God signifies the perfection of what is characteristic of women and femininity.

These insights remind us to pray for an end to the brutal oppression of Christians living in Muslim countries and for an end to the degradation of women throughout the world. Let us also pray for all martyrs, especially Amariah. May her family feel God's consolation, and may they know that by her sacrifice people around the world have been reminded of the beauty and greatness of the feminine spirit.

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Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God's grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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