ANNOUNCER: Viewer discretion advised.

Includes stories and images of violence.

KHADIM HUSSAIN RIZVI (speaking Urdu): ANNOUNCER: Pakistan's blasphemy laws date back to British colonial rule.

LATIF SRA (speaking Urdu): ANNOUNCER: In the 1980s, the punishment for blasphemy became more severe, even including death.

GULALAI ISMAIL: In Pakistan, once you are accused of blasphemy, that's it.

ANNOUNCER: "The Accused: Damned or Devoted?

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Includes stories and images of violence.

♪ ♪ (horns honking) ♪ ♪ RIZVI (speaking Urdu): (all exclaim) (crowd chanting in Urdu): RIZVI: (chanting): MAN (speaking Urdu): (crowd chanting) CROWD: ♪ ♪ (traffic humming, horns honking) (speaking Urdu) ♪ ♪ (officer shouting order) (soldiers performing rifle drill) ♪ ♪ (speaking Urdu): (man speaking in background) (crowd chanting) RIZVI: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ SALEEM (speaking Urdu): RIZVI: (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ SALEEM: (audio muted) ♪ ♪ RIZVI: (horns honking) ANTHONY (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (man chanting) MAN (speaking Urdu): GHULAM CHAUDHRY (speaking Urdu): MAN (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (men shouting) (gun firing) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (horns honking) (people talking in background) GULALAI ISMAIL: I run an organization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

We work against religious extremism and Talibanization.

(women talking in background) GULALAI ISMAIL: There was a recent case of Mashal Khan.

Mashal Khan was a young boy from my village.

He was journalism student.

Passionate, smart, intelligent.

(speaking Pashto): (people shouting) GULALAI ISMAIL: He was killed not because he had committed blasphemy, but he was accused of blasphemy because his voice was becoming problematic.

(crowd clamoring) CROWD (shouting in Pashto): (crowd clamoring, objects pounding and hitting) (shouting and pounding fade) (birds chirping) GULALAI ISMAIL (speaking non-English language): (speaking English): By speaking out, by not accepting to remain silenced, many people have started seeing me as a threat.

(speaking Pashto): A boy from Mardan whose name was Hamza Khan, he made a video against me.

It was around a 12-, 12-minute video, which was uploaded on Facebook, in which he said that I am anti-Islam, I'm an atheist, and a threat to, to Pakistan.

(key taps, Hamza Khan speaking Pashto): ♪ ♪ (shouting and cheering) REPORTER: Pakistan is gearing up for the upcoming general election.

These elections are crucial, as it's only for the second time in the history of Pakistan that a democratic transfer of power is set to take place.

(chanting in Urdu): REPORTER 2: Imran Khan, one of the best-known faces in the country.

It's the fourth time that this national icon, champion of the 1992 Cricket World Cup, is running for the office of prime minister.

(man speaking Urdu, crowd shouts response) REPORTER 3: For the 2018 elections, his party has been pandering to the religious right.

It's a strategy that might get him elected.

♪ ♪ RIZVI (speaking Urdu): CROWD: Inshallah.

RIZVI: (crowd murmuring response and chanting in Urdu) (chanting continues) (Rizvi speaking Urdu) (audience talking in background) RIZVI: ♪ ♪ (camera shutters clicking) (people talking in background) TASEER (speaking Urdu): (chanting and shouting in Urdu) (cheer and exclaim) (chanting continues) MAN (speaking Urdu): (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ REPORTER: While details are still sketchy at this point, Governor Salman Taseer was shot.

Mr. Taseer died on the spot.

One witness said that the gunman came out of the governor's car.

(camera shutters clicking) RIZVI: (crowd clapping and chanting in Urdu) (chanting): (men shouting) RIZVI: ♪ ♪ (crowd chanting) RIZVI: (audience responds) (crowd chanting) (people clamoring, camera shutters clicking) REPORTER: The streets were packed with protesters who came out in droves over the sentence that was handed down to the man responsible for the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer's, death in January.

Mumtaz Qadri, Taseer's bodyguard, was given the death penalty.

(speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (protesters shouting, man speaking on microphone) REPORTER: Thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets for the funeral of former police officer Mumtaz Qadri, who was executed for assassinating a governor in 2011.

(protesters shouting, man speaking on microphone) (people crying, talking softly) (people weeping) MAN (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ MALIK BASHIR AWAN (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (crowd chanting) (chanting continues) (audience responds) ♪ ♪ (horns honking) ♪ ♪ SRA (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (car horns honking) (people talking in background) SRA: (speaking at meeting) SRA: ♪ ♪ (talking in background) MARIA: Well, I'm a human rights lawyer, and we provide free legal aid to the persecuted minorities.

♪ ♪ I haven't seen any such case which is really the blasphemy.

If I have any problem with you, it is very easy to get you out of my way by saying that "he's a blasphemer."

And I think it is because of intolerance in this society.

People are so much full of hatred.

♪ ♪ (speaking Punjabi) (shouting indistinctly) (motors rumbling) (speaking non-English language): (translation of sign): (traffic humming in background) PRIEST (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (speaking Urdu): (people talking in background) (speaking Punjabi): - (speaking Punjabi): MARIA: ANDREAS: MARIA: - (speaking Punjabi, voice breaking) (sobbing) MARIA: - (sobbing) ♪ ♪ (traffic humming in background) HAMZA KHAN (speaking Pashto): GULALAI ISMAIL: It was not about religion, because I come from a Muslim background.

It was basically one young woman who was challenging patriarchy, and no woman has ever done that.

What we see in our culture is men controlling lives of women.

I received threats of gang rape, I was threatened that my, that, that acid should be thrown on my face so that I'm not able to speak again.

I was told that I will become another Mashal Khan.

(man speaking Pashto, crowd responding) MAN (crowd responding): GULALAI ISMAIL: I have been hiding for several weeks now.

I have not gone to my office.

I have barely stepped outside.

I cannot tolerate this anymore.

Something has to change now.

♪ ♪ (speaking Urdu): - Mm.

- Mm.

- (speaking Urdu): - Mm, mm.

WAHID: - Mm.

♪ ♪ GULALAI ISMAIL (speaking English): My father was accused of blasphemy... (both speaking softly) ...because he spoke against religious extremism and Talibanization.

MUHAMMAD ISMAIL (speaking Urdu): GULALAI ISMAIL: He was jailed several times.

He defended his case for seven years in the court.

Eventually, the court dismissed the case and he was proven innocent.

(dishes clanking) In Pakistan, once you are accused of blasphemy, that's it.

Your life is over in Pakistan.

Because even if you're innocent, everyone thinks that you are still guilty and that you deserve to be punished.

- (chuckles) IQBAL LALA (speaking Pashto): - (speaking Pashto): LALA: (crowd clamoring) LALA: (clamoring continues) GULALAI ISMAIL: LALA: GULALAI ISMAIL: LALA: (Gulalai Ismail interjects, Lala continues) (speaking Urdu): (chanting): RIZVI (speaking Urdu): (audience responds) (crowd cheering) (man chanting, crowd responding) ♪ ♪ RIZVI (speaking Urdu): REPORTER (speaking Urdu): RIZVI: (crowd talking in background) RIZVI: (crowd cheers) RIZVI: (Rizvi shouting, crowd responds) ♪ ♪ RIZVI: (firing) (weapons firing) (man speaking on loudspeaker) (people yelling, whistles blowing) ♪ ♪ (crowd cheering) (speaking Urdu): (crowd chanting) (talking in background) MAN (speaking Urdu): - (speaking Urdu): (continue talking) (horns honking) MARIA: We went to see Patras Masih, and now we have got his power of attorney signed.

He has lots of bruising and lots of swelling on his body, so I am going to move a petition for his medical.

(speaking Punjabi weakly): MARIA: You can say that it was kind of his dying declaration, because that time, nobody knew that he was, if he will survive.

And he said that "they compelled me to do this.

"They, there was no other choice.

"Either I had to perform that act or either I had to jump from the window, so I preferred to die."

The F.I.A.

is one of the, one of the biggest Pakistan's agency, that is Federal Investigating Agency.

And if they perform such kind of investigations, then how would you expect that people will get justice?

♪ ♪ (talking in background) SRA (speaking Urdu): (speaking Urdu): (talking in background) SRA (speaking Punjabi): (speaking Urdu): (chanting in Urdu): We want... - Justice!

- We want... - Justice!

- Sajid wants... - Justice!

- Patras wants... - Justice!

(all chanting in Urdu): (speaking Urdu): - (all chanting): Asia Bibi!

- Free!

Free!

- Asia Bibi!

- Free!

Free!

- Asia Bibi!

CHAUDHRY: - (chanting): Free!

Free!

- Asia Bibi!

- Free!

Free!

- Asia Bibi!

- Free!

Free!

- Asia Bibi!

(speaking Italian): (cheering, man speaking) CHAUDHRY: - Free!

Free!

- Asia Bibi!

CHAUDHRY: - Asia Bibi!

- Free!

Free!

(man speaking on microphone) (man speaking softly in non-English language) - (speaking Urdu): (voice breaking): Thank you.

(man speaking non-English language) REPORTER: Pope Francis has spoken out on several occasions in favor of Bibi's release from jail.

Now, earlier this year, the Holy Father met the woman's husband and daughter when they actually came to Rome.

(camera shutters clicking) (speaking Urdu): (crowd cheering) (man chanting) (man singing) SRA (speaking Urdu): (singing continues) SRA: MAN (singing in Urdu): (backing singers join in) (song continues) (speaking Urdu): (crowd exclaims) ♪ ♪ SRA (speaking Urdu): (in speech): (audience joining in): ♪ ♪ (speaking Urdu): (speaking Urdu): (man interjects, other continues): (people chanting in Urdu) ♪ ♪ (cheering) ♪ ♪ (speaking non-English language): (man speaking on microphone, crowd cheering) RIZVI (speaking Urdu): (Hamza Khan speaking Pashto on television) (woman speaking non-English language) HAMZA KHAN (speaking Urdu): (voices in different languages overlapping) (speaking Pashto): (voices overlapping) (speaking Urdu): (voices overlapping) (speaking Urdu): (voices overlapping) GULALAI ISMAIL: 16 years of my life, everything that I had built, that had been shut down.

After I filed on Hamza Khan, he received support from many within the government and the establishment.

In Pakistan, the establishment runs the show, people from the military and the civil bureaucracy.

The establishment uses people like Khadim Hussain Rizvi to maintain its power and to silence people like me who challenge their status quo.

♪ ♪ One night, when we were not at home, someone started firing at our home.

Two magazines of bullets were fired at our home.

(speaking Pashto): - (speaking Pashto): MUHAMMAD ISMAIL (speaking Pashto): (voice trembling): (traffic humming, horns honking in distance) REPORTER: Tomorrow, the country goes to the polls.

100 million people are registered to vote in one of the world's most troubled but strategically important nations.

A lot is at stake here and far beyond.

(talking in background) (talking in background) (chuckling) MAN (speaking Urdu): (cheering) (speaking non-English language) (speaking Urdu): (speaking Urdu): INTERVIEWER: RIZVI: FRANCIS (speaking Urdu): (speaking Urdu): FRANCIS: GULALAI ISMAIL: FRANCIS: (Gulalai Ismail interjects, Francis continues): (Urdu song playing) ANTHONY (speaking Punjabi): (speaking Punjabi): (Anthony interjecting, Dilawar continues): ANTHONY: - (murmuring) ANTHONY: ♪ ♪ (speaking Urdu): (speaking Urdu): RIZVI: (people yelling, objects pounding) RIZVI: (speaking Urdu): (people yelling in background) (chanting in Urdu): (people shouting) IMRAN KHAN (speaking Urdu): (men shouting) (crowd clamoring, rioting) (speaking Urdu): (crowd shouting) (people shouting, talking in background) (speaking Urdu): (crowd clamoring) (canister explodes) (explosion pounds, motorcycle engines rev) (speaking Urdu): MAN (speaking Urdu): ♪ ♪ (horn honking) ANTHONY: Now I'm going to Islamabad, Supreme Court of Pakistan, in order to appear along with my senior counsel, Mr. Saif Ul-Malook.

The situation we are facing with this case is very serious.

The complainant of this case has filed a civilian petition against the decision, that the release of Asia Bibi is wrong and she must be, she should be hanged.

Today is dangerous, too, because in, in case we will win, then we have no idea what will happen.

(talking in background) REPORTER: Will it be possible for her to, you know, stay in Pakistan, or should...?

- No, no, she cannot stay.

There's already fatwa in the field.

The ulema have said that even the Supreme Court has acquitted her, but they'll execute and they'll kill her, so I don't think she can stay here.

REPORTER (speaking Urdu): - (speaking Urdu): ANTHONY: Today is historical day in the history of Pakistan.

This is as day when we saw the victory against the injustices.

And obviously, this judgment will also make the difference in the cases of blasphemy which are now pending before the trial courts.

And now I have no words to say what I am feeling now.

I'm speechless, because it's a, it's a very good day, and I am really excited and feeling glad.

You will find that Asia will be leaving very soon.

I think weeks-- we're talking about weeks.

There, there's a little bit of a complication, uh, and, and, you know, I can't speak on, on, on the media about it, but I can assure you she's safe, and she will be leaving in weeks.

(speaking Urdu): GULALAI ISMAIL: I met with intelligence and government representatives.

They told me to stop my activism, to stop speaking against establishment.

But of course, I am not willing, and I will not bend to them.

Political resistance is the way for getting rid of religious extremism.

♪ ♪ (sirens blaring) (song playing) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪