Barnabas Fund - International Headquarters River Street, Pewsey, Wilthire. Phone: +44 1672 565030 Latitude: 51 deg 23 min 18 sec N Longitude: 1 deg 45 min 48 sec W .
Home
News
Archives
Pakistani Christian woman’s inspiring re...

Email:

Pakistani Christian woman’s inspiring recovery from horrific acid attack

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
 refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

Published: 15:45 GMT Daylight Time - Monday 23 July 2012

Pakistani Christian woman’s inspiring recovery from horrific acid attack

Country/Region: Pakistan, South and East Asia

“Those people, they think they did a bad thing to me, but they brought me closer to God. They helped me fulfil my dreams. I never imagined I could be the person I am today.”

Julie Aftab, a Pakistani Christian who had acid thrown in her face, aged 16

A Pakistani Christian woman who was severely disfigured in a vicious acid attack by two Muslim men ten years ago now calls her scars “my jewel, my gift from God”.

Julie Aftab, now 26, suffered extensive burns to her face, chest, arms, and oesophagus when the attackers threw acid at her and poured the corrosive substance down her throat.

Faisalabad_Pakistan_4X3.jpg
Julie Aftab was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan
Olaf Kellerhoff / CC BY-NC 2.0

The horrific assault happened on 15 June 2002, two weeks into her new job as a telephone operator in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Julie, the eldest of seven children, had had to leave school when she was 12 to earn money for the family after her father broke his back in an accident.

A man entered the office where she worked and noticed the silver cross necklace Julie was wearing. He asked her if she was a Christian and she replied, “Yes, sir.” The man said she was living life in the gutter, was going to hell and was living in darkness. Julie replied, “I am living in the light,” to which the man retorted, “So you think Islam is in darkness?” Conscious of Pakistan’s strict “blasphemy laws”, which are regularly used to penalise Christians, Julie replied, “No, you said that. Not me.” 

Angered by the exchange, the Muslim man left, returning around half an hour later with another man and a bottle of battery acid.

He threw the liquid at her and, as the 16-year-old ran for the door, the other man grabbed her hair and they poured the acid down her throat, searing her oesophagus.  

The acid melted through much of the right side of her face and left her with bone-deep burns on her chest and arms. She lost an eye, both eyelids and several teeth.

When the Muslim men, who were detained by people in the neighbourhood, said that they assaulted Julie because she had insulted Islam, the community turned on her, threatening to burn down the hospital if doctors there treated her.

The police let her attackers go without even filing an official report until Christian leaders complained.

Julie was turned away from a second hospital before a third one agreed to treat her. She was predicted to die any day but slowly began to heal, spending almost a year in hospital.

But her ordeal was far from over. Because she was associated with insulting Islam, Julie’s family was persecuted and their home was torched. “They wanted to hang me,” Julie said.

Her family sought help from a Pakistani church leader, who arranged for Julie to go to the US in 2004 for further treatment.

Eight years and 31 operations later, Julie’s face has been painstakingly reconstructed, and she has built a new life in Houston, Texas.

When she first arrived in America, Julie was taken in by a Christian couple, Lee and Gloria Ervin, with whom she still lives, and she has become very much part of their family.

Lee (71) taught her English and how to read and write, and Julie is now studying for an accounting degree. Over time she has been able to forgive her attackers.

Julie, who raises money for a safe house for persecuted girls in Pakistan, says that there is a reason that God gave her life, adding, “I don’t want to miss one second of it”.

Help us: Share this article

Email:

Pakistani Christian woman’s inspiring recovery from horrific acid attack

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
 refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

christian, persecution, charity, church, persecuted, sookhdeo, Islam

Other articles

Latest Emergency

/_images_files/content/article_files/Eritrea/201305/Eritrean-Christian-refugee-torture-wounds-4X3.jpg

Follow Barnabas

or

receive news & appeal emails as they are published

From Twitter

From Twitter_icon
Read more...

Daily prayer

Daily prayer_icon

  • On 20 January 2013 the Eritrean security police raided the homes of various Christians and arrested 50 people. One of them was a lady of 85, detained for hosting an underground church in her house. They joined hundreds of other believers currently held in Eritrean prisons, some of them in appalling conditions. Many more have fled the country to escape the persecution and have ended up in prison in Egypt, where they have been subjected to rape, beatings and starvation. Pray for all those Eritrean Christians suffering for their faith in their own country and beyond, that the Lord will be their help and shield (Psalm 33:20). Pray too for a prison ministry, supported by Barnabas, that visits and helps Eritrean Christians jailed in Egypt. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 9 hours ago

  • Pray for the families of Abdoulaye and Abakachi, two converts from Islam to Christianity who were shot dead by Islamists in northern Cameroon. They were travelling with two other converts around Lake Chad on 19 February when their vehicle was stopped by four armed men who were looking for Abdoulaye. He was the leader of the converts from the Kotoko people group and had last year received a threat from militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The gunmen opened fire, killing Abakachi on the spot. Abdoulaye and another man were also shot; Abdoulaye later died of his injuries. He left a wife and 13 children; Abakachi left a wife and four children. Boko Haram had previously warned all Christian converts in northern Cameroon to return to Islam or “face Allah’s wrath”. Pray that the Lord will protect these vulnerable believers. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Thu, May 2013 00:00

  • Give thanks to the Lord for the courage and boldness of the Christians in North Korea who carry on witnessing for Christ despite the savage penalties imposed by the Communist regime. Those who share their faith or distribute Bibles risk torture and probable execution if they are caught, and their families may be dispatched to the country’s infamous labour camps to be starved or worked to death. Yet remarkably, the Church in North Korea is growing well, and some who have fled abroad and become Christians there have even gone back to share Christ with family and friends in their poverty and distress. Pray that God will keep His brave witnesses from harm and continue to add to their number (Acts 2:47). Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Wed, May 2013 00:00

  • Mohamed Ibaouene (36), a convert from Islam to Christianity, was convicted in July 2012 of “proselytising” in Algeria. The verdict was passed in his absence and without his knowledge. He was later sentenced to a year in prison and fined 50,000 dinars (£420; US$630). Mohamed challenged the conviction, and on 13 February 2013 the appeal court rescinded the jail term but doubled his fine. A Muslim colleague had brought the accusation against Mohamed after the latter refused to renounce Christ. Pray for justice for Mohamed and that the rights of Algerians to freedom of religion will be respected both by other citizens and by the law. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Tue, May 2013 00:00

  • The various measures recently taken against Christian churches and institutions by the government of Sudan add up to a ruthless campaign that may be intended to eradicate Christianity from the country altogether. They were launched by a media drive against alleged “Christianisation” and have focused in particular on those involved in Christian ministry. Numerous church buildings have been demolished, and Christian literature has been seized. President al-Bashir has declared his intention of making Sudan entirely Islamic and of strengthening the place of sharia. Pray that God will frustrate the plans of the authorities and that the churches of Sudan will remain faithful in the face of intimidation. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Mon, May 2013 00:00

Read more...

Quick navigation

© Barnabas Fund 1997 - 2013 All rights reserved.
Barnabas Fund & Barnabas Aid are registered trade marks