Church Bombing Survivor Is Now Helping Christians Persecuted in Pakistan Find Refuge in Australia

Kashmala Munawar holds her left leg after suffering an injury to her right leg in a
bomb blast at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan on September 22, 2013.

By Samuel Smith

Christian Post

A young Pakistani Christian woman who lost her leg in a 2013 church bombing and is learning to live her life without her family in Australia is now trying to help persecuted Christians from her home country gain access to the refuge she has found.

In an interview with The Christian Post, 21-year-old Kashmala Munawar recalled the day her life changed forever. It was Sept. 22, 2013, when she was 17 years old. Twin suicide bombers killed 127 innocent people and injured over 250 others who were walking out of All Saints Church in Peshawar following a Sunday service.

"I was just putting on my slippers and suddenly this big explosion happened. I got blind for a few minutes and after that, I saw my mom and I saw the people. They were crying and they were bleeding. So I started to cry," Munawar told CP via WhatsApp.

 "One of my sisters, she was inside the church, she was telling me to get up. But I couldn't. I told her, 'I don't have strength in my legs.' She started to cry as well. Someone came and he was trying to pick me up to take me to the hospital. But he couldn't, so he called someone else and they took me to the hospital."

The injury to Munawar's right leg was so severe that gangrene formed in one of her toes about a week after the blast and she had to have her leg amputated below the knee.

"They cut half of my leg," she explained.

It wasn't until February of 2014 that Munawar received the opportunity to travel to Australia and receive a prosthetic leg that was paid for by the Melbourne-based nonprofit Children First Foundation.

"The thing was, I went to the biggest hospital [in Pakistan]. They took me there and doctors they can't fix my legs there. They don't have the facilities," she recalled. "But someone in the Pakistani community contacted the Pakistani community in Australia."

Munawar and her mother traveled to Melbourne so that she could receive a prosthetic leg and learn to walk again. After four months in Australia, Munawar's mother was pressured to return home and leave Munawar all by herself in a foreign land.

"I haven't seen my family since I came to Australia," Munawar told CP.

While she was learning to walk again, Munawar lived in farm house with other children sponsored by the charity. She explained that it took her about 10 to 11 months to learn how to walk again.

"There were other kids from other countries. Kids come from other countries to get treated if they can't get treated in their own country," she explained. "I don't know about now but when I was living there, it used to be kids come and go. Sometimes there are like maybe six kids, sometimes 11, sometimes 15."

In 2015, Munawar started going to school in Australia. She is now in her last year of high school and plans to attend university next year to pursue her interests in humanitarian work, social work and business administration.

Although she is looking forward to her life in Australia, Munawar would like nothing more than for her family members back in Pakistan to join her in Australia, as she continues to struggle with loneliness and getting used to life in that country.

Christian Post continues

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Iranian Woman Stabbed To Death In Australia After Converting To Christianity

By Ruth Gledhill
Christian Today

A young woman from Iran who converted to Christianity has been stabbed to death.

Nasrin Abek, aged 35, was found in her apartment in Sydney, Australia with multiple stab wounds. Her husband Amir Darbanou, aged 42, has been charged with murder. The couple lived in the wealthy Potts Point suburb Sydney.

Darbanou was charged yesterday after police force an entry into the home, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The dead woman's father had allegedly called police having himself received a phone from Darbanou on Wednesday night.

The victim's father told the Sydney Morning Herald that his distress had been made even greater because he had to contact police several times before they investigated.

Darbanou appeared before the Central Local Court in Sydney this morning and entered no plea. He did not apply for bail but it was refused in any case.

Police knew of no history of domestic violence involving the couple but neighbours reported screaming coming from the apartment on Wednesday night, according to local reports.

Abek, a hairdresser, moved from Iran to Australia four years ago and had recently become a Christian.

Story continues here