An activist who renounced Islam and advocates for women’s rights was accused of blasphemy in Tanzania. newspaper The Guardian drew attention to the situation.
The incident occurred with activist Zara Kay, who grew up in a Shiite family in Tanzania, and abandoned Islam while studying in Australia. “I am going to the police station because someone accused me of blasphemy,” – wrote on social networks December 28. As the newspaper notes, there are no official blasphemy laws in the country.
The girl was later released. On her page at Twitter , she noted that she was released on bail and that it would not be easy to break her. Like reported by the International Coalition of Former Muslims, Kay’s police were questioned about the rejection of Islam and the work of her own organization Faithless Hijabi, which supports women like that.
As a result, the activist was officially charged with three charges: for a post on social networks criticizing the President of Tanzania, in which she wrote about measures to combat COVID-19 in the country, for not surrendering her Tanzanian passport after obtaining Australian citizenship, and also for using a SIM card registered in the name of a family member and not her own. Kay is due to report back to the police on January 5.
The Coalition considers the charges to be politically motivated and points out that the article on SIM cards has been repeatedly used to prosecute people in other high-profile cases. The organization calls on the Tanzanian government to drop all charges against the girl and let her leave the country, and the Australian authorities to intervene in the situation. In the Australian Foreign Ministry it was indicated that they were providing consular assistance to Kay. However, this assistance usually consists of contacting local lawyers.
According to the latest estimates, 61 percent of Tanzania’s population is Christian. Muslims in the country are about 35 percent.