Born November 20, 1982 Sabatina James (Austrian Author)

Sabatina James, often referred to as Sabatina, is an Austrian Pakistani

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in 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 emotional ...

, author and founder of Sabatina e.V., a non profit organisation based in Germany. She is known for her human rights advocacy, especially for rescuing persecuted christians in Pakistan and helping muslim girls in Germany to flee from forced marriage and honor killings.

Early life

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

Dhadar Dhadar ( ur, ), also spelt Dadhar, is the capital of the Kachhi District in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The town which also consists of one Union Council is the headquarters of the tehsil of the same name. It is located at 29°28'0"N 67 ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

until her family moved to

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

, Austria. Sabatina integrated and assimilated quickly into Austrian society. Her parents were unhappy with this since they understood

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

as a temporary residence. Since restrictions against their daughter were no longer effective, the family decided to send Sabatina to

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

to marry her cousin. Her parents left her in

, where she was forced to go to a

Madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

. Sabatina consented initially into the marriage with her cousin in order to get back to Austria. Once in

, she refused to marry him. Her family threatened to kill her so she was forced into hiding and take on a new identity. This led to a break-up with the family.

Escape

She survived by sleeping in a 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 en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

with the help of friends. There she started a new life, changing her name and converting to Catholicism. Sabatina wrote a book about this experience, and her parents sued for defamation. The court ruled in her favor. She was baptized in 2003, in a small Baroque church of a village priest, who was convinced of her inner conversion.

Career

Since 2006 her organization has fought for victims of honour violence and persecuted Christians in Pakistan. In 2012 she took part in the international counter-jihad 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 Austrian former Muslims Austrian Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism from Islam Former Muslim critics of Islam Living people Pakistani former Muslims Pakistani Roman Catholics 1982 births Pakistani emigrants to Austria Naturalised citizens of Austria Anti-Islam sentiment in Austria Counter-jihad activists