Here's to looking at you, Junaid Hafeez

Junaid Hafeez and I both turned 40 years old this year. I cannot help but notice that the earlier years of his life bear some resemblance to mine. Like Junaid, I was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to spend a semester at a college in the US. Like Junaid, I lived in Rajanpur, Punjab, although briefly. And like Junaid, I dropped out of medical school to pursue a degree in social sciences.

This is where the similarities end.

At 27, I was high-spirited and eager to take on the world. At 27, he must have felt the same, I imagine—that his life was brimming with possibility. But it was at this age that Hafeez was accused of blasphemy.

Today, thirteen years later, he spends his days in a cell six feet by eight, with a toilet in the same space. “Sanitary conditions are not at all good,” says Asad Jamal, one of his lawyers. “The door provides the air to enter, and there is a very, very small outlet too.” Jamal says that Hafeez’s cell is located in a wing reserved for high-risk inmates, men accused of terrorism, and others whose trials are held inside prison because they cannot be safely transported to court. Jamal described Hafeez’s routine in 2019: “No one to talk to. The only time he opens his mouth is when the family comes to meet him. Little time for physical exercise. Total concrete, no trees. Surveillance 24 hours, no privacy.“

After completing his Master’s degree, Hafeez joined Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan as a lecturer of English Literature while he also wrote poetry. A 2010 interview on FM103 captures his youthful romanticism. Despite the considerable influence of dogmatic and conservative voices on campus, Hafeez was committed to inculcating critical thinking among his students and had managed to carve out a space for independent academic inquiry.

In 2013, however, some of his students accused both him and Shirin Zubair, the head of department at that time, of blasphemy. They mobilized religious groups on campus and distributed pamphlets calling for his arrest and removal as faculty. Given the security........

© Dawn Prism