Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer in Pakistan, was sentenced to death in December 2019 on blasphemy charges after allegedly posting derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad on social media. Arrested in 2013, he has since faced repeated trial delays and has been held in solitary confinement due to attacks by fellow prisoners. His first lawyer,…
Renagul Gheni is imprisoned for her Uyghur identity and religious beliefs. In 2018, Chinese authorities detained Renagul, an elementary school art teacher and mother of two, in Cherchen (Qiemo) county, Xinjiang. She was reportedly arrested for offering funeral prayers for her father and possessing a Qur’an, which she had also loaned to others. Gheni was…
Mojdeh Falahi is imprisoned for her Christian faith. On September 9, 2024, Iranian security forces arrested Mojdeh Falahi, a Christian convert, in Shiraz. She had gone to the prosecutor’s office to provide legal documents for a fellow Christian who had been detained the previous day. Authorities immediately arrested her and charged her with “illegal Christian…
Cao Thi Cuc is imprisoned for practicing her faith. On May 12, 2022, Vietnamese authorities arrested Cao Thi Cuc, a leader of the TABBVT Buddhist Monastery, an independent religious group. She was charged under Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code for “abusing democratic freedoms.” Authorities claimed that she and other members produced content critical…
Maira Shahbaz, a 14-year-old Christian girl from Faisalabad, Pakistan, was abducted at gunpoint in April 2020 by three men led by Mohamad Nakash. Forced into marriage and pressured to convert to Islam, her case has sparked calls for international intervention from UK MPs and human rights organizations advocating for her asylum in the UK. Despite…
Christian convert Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh (61) was arrested in June 2016 in a raid on an engagement party held by Christians near the Iranian capital, Tehran. In May 2017, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for “acting against national security through the formation and establishment of an illegal church organisation in his home”. Naser was…
Leah, a teenage Christian girl, is the last of 110 schoolgirls abducted from a school in Dapchi, Nigeria, to be released by the Boko Haram. Despite the fact that all of the girls have now been released, Boko Haram refuses to let Leah go. According to one of the other girls, Leah declined to renounce…