The remarkable story of a woman who refused to renounce her faith and unwittingly became the global symbol of the fight against religious extremism. 'I was going to die because of a glass of water.' After drinking water from the same glass as a Muslim woman, Asia Bibi, a Christian, was sentenced to hang by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 2010 on charges of blasphemy. Bibi's case polarised all of Pakistan and mobilised international support from across the globe, including politicians, journalists, and countless organisations and supporters who fought for her freedom. For nine long years, Bibi awaited death in prison until she was formally acquitted in January 2019. Now a political exile, Bibi is reunited with her family in the West, but she will never be allowed to return to her homeland.

Punjab, Pakistan, June 2009. The temperature is 45 Degrees and Asia has been out picking fruit for several hours. It's exhausting, sweaty work, but Asia and her husband have five children to feed. At midday she goes to the nearest well, picks up a cup and takes a long drink of cool water. She refills the cup, drinks some more and then offers it to another woman. Suddenly one of her fellow workers cries out that the water belongs to the Muslim women and that with her actions, Asia - who is Christian - has contaminated it. An argument ignites and in an instant, with one word, Asia's fate is sealed. 'Blasphemy!' someone shouts. In Pakistan this is a charge punishable by death. First attacked by a mob, Asia was soon after thrown into prison and then sentenced to be hanged. Since then she has been kept in a windowless cell. Her family have had to flee their village, under threat from vengeful extremists. In the wave of accusation that followed, only two public figures came to Asia's defence: the Muslim governor of the Punjab and Pakistan's Christian Minister for Minorities. Both have since been brutally murdered. Here, in equal measures shocking and inspiring, Asia Bibi, who has become a symbol for everyone concerned with ending the violence committed in the name of religion, bravely speaks to us from her prison cell.