Sabatina James, born 1982 (November 1984 according to herself) is the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

of an Austrian Pakistani

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

, author and founder of Sabatina e.V. (Friends of the Passion), a non profit organisation based in Germany. She is known for her

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

advocacy, especially for rescuing persecuted Christians in Pakistan and helping Muslim girls in Germany to flee from

forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

and

honour killing An honor killing (American English), ''honour killing'' (Commonwealth English), or ''shame killing'' is a type of murder in which a person, usually a woman or girl, is killed by or at the behest of male members of their family or their male ...

Early life

Sabatina lived until her tenth year as a Muslim with her family in the city of Dhadar,

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

until her family moved to

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

, Austria. Sabatina integrated and assimilated quickly into Austrian society. Her parents were unhappy with this. Since restrictions against their daughter were no longer effective, the family decided to send Sabatina to

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

to marry her cousin. Her parents abandoned her in

, where she was forced to go to a

Madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

. Sabatina consented initially into the marriage with her cousin in order to return to Austria. However, once in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, she refused to marry him and when they learned of this her parents threw her out of the house. Subsequently, when it was discovered that she had converted to Christianity, her parents threatened to kill her. As a result she was forced into hiding and to take on a new identity.

Escape

She survived by sleeping in a youth homeless shelter and working at a local café in

. Her parents harassed her at both places, showing up and ordering her to wed. Sabatina escaped to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

with the help of friends. There she started a new life, changed her name and was baptized Catholic in 2003. She wrote a book about this experience, and her parents sued for defamation of character. However, the court ruled in her favor. The German police took her into the victim protection program. In 2006 she established Sabatina e.V. (Friends of the Passion) in Hamburg to help victims of forced marriage and Christians persecuted for their faith. A prominent debater, she rose to fame by appearing in several leading Austrian and German TV Shows. In a feature story, the German Spiegel Magazine called her "God's Supermodel".

Career

Since 2006 her organization has fought for victims of honour violence and persecuted Christians in Pakistan. In 2010 she received the "Filippas Engel" Youth Prize by Princess Gabriela zu Sayn Wittgenstein and the Ingrid zu Solms Human Rights Award in Frankfurt. In 2012 she took part in the international

counter-jihad Counter-jihad (also known as the counter-jihad movement) is a self-titled Islamophobia, anti-Muslim political movement loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, demonstrators, and other activists across the Western world. Proponents are ...

conference in the European Parliament in Brussels, billed as the "International Conference for Free Speech & Human Rights". In 2014 at the Look! Gala in Vienna, she was honored as "Woman of the year" to spotlight her outstanding achievement for human rights.

Works

* * * *

References

External links

German National Library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Sabatina 1982 births Living people Austrian critics of Islam Austrian former Sunni Muslims Austrian Roman Catholics Christian critics of Islam Converts to Roman Catholicism from Sunni Islam Counter-jihad activists Former Muslim critics of Islam Naturalised citizens of Austria Pakistani former Sunni Muslims Pakistani Roman Catholics Pakistani emigrants to Austria Pseudonymous writers on Islam