I'm not usually one to ask help, but these are extenuating circumstances.
I want to make it plain I consider Annette (@Troisnyx) a close friend and sister in the faith. I won't sit here and say nothing while her whole life is yanked out from under her, while the nightmares that follow her around in waking life threaten to become real again.
If you follow her, you probably know she and her fiance live together in the UK. Neither of them come from good situations, but they've been making it. They recently were able to get a place, safe from harm. Still, Annette suffers from horrible nightmares and PTSD, a consequence of tremendous abuse she's still reeling from today.
What you probably didn't know is that abuse came after being drafted into the Malaysian National Service. Yes, that's right. Already a second-class citizen on basis of race and religion, she was forced into the service, not too long after criticizing the Malaysian authorities, which, to put it bluntly, are not kind.
Life for non-Malay non-Muslims is not great in Muslim Malaysia.
While at the University of Hertfordshire, she heard from her father how hard things were getting. He was sacked for no reason other than not being a Malay Muslim, and left without any means of supporting himself. People of her ethnicity have been shot in the streets. Her lecturers (one of whom was from Malaysia) told her that "there is no rule of law in Malaysia," and that if she were to continue singing openly about her faith and writing subversive articles, she would face dire consequences. The lecturer from Malaysia who told Annette this asked not to be quoted or contacted, for fear of reprisals.
The National Service program itself has a terrible reputation, but even if you know nothing about Malaysia, with between one-quarter to one-third of women in AMERICAN armed services being raped by their own platoons, you can imagine what she had to go through as a non-Malay non-Muslim in a nation where people of her ethnicity are shot dead in broad daylight.
It was so bad, her father sent her to study in the UK, where she is now, caring for her disabled fiance, Sean, who couldn't survive without her, and I would argue vice versa, since she is basically an enemy of the Malaysian state -- for exercising what should be basic human rights to free speech and free belief and being born.
If Annette was forced to return to Malaysia she would not be truly free to practice her own Christian faith. A church she attended was bombed by fundamentalists while she was still in Malaysia. She would not be allowed to proselytise or speak openly about her faith, she would not be allowed to sing about it in public (because it gives her so much joy), and any slight action seen as undermining Islam as the official religion would have her fined and imprisoned.
No one should be subjected to what Annette, for no other reason than being non-Malay, Christian, and female, has endured. Sean and Annette are engaged to marry, and authorities continue to ignore their pleas to grant her freedom.
To stay safe, she needs the VISA she rightfully deserves, and she needs your help.
I ask that the Home Office grant Annette a Leave to Remain on Family Grounds visa that she should have been granted according to their own rules.
Please sign the petition and share it around!
