Sabatina James

Sabatina James (born 20 November 1982) is the pseudonym of an Austrian Pakistani humanitarian, author and founder of Sabatina e.V. (Friends of the Passion), 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 honour killings.

Early life
Sabatina lived until her tenth year as a Muslim with her family in the city of Dhadar, Pakistan until her family moved to Linz, Austria. Sabatina integrated and assimilated quickly into Austrian society. Her parents were unhappy with this. Since restrictions against their daughter were no longer effective, the family decided to send Sabatina to Lahore to marry her cousin. Her parents abandoned her in Pakistan, where she was forced to go to a Madrasa. Sabatina consented initially into the marriage with her cousin in order to return to Austria. However, once in Austria, she refused to marry him and when they learned of this her parents threw her out of the house. Subsequently, when it was discovered that she had converted to Christianity, her parents threatened to kill her. As a result she was forced into hiding and to take on a new identity.

Escape
She survived by sleeping in a youth homeless shelter and working at a local café in Linz. Her parents harassed her at both places, showing up and ordering her to wed. Sabatina escaped to Vienna with the help of friends. There she started a new life, changed her name and was baptized Catholic in 2003. She wrote a book about this experience, and her parents sued for defamation of character. However, the court ruled in her favor. The German police took her into the victim protection program. In 2006 she established Sabatina e.V. (Friends of the Passion) in Hamburg to help victims of forced marriage and Christians persecuted for their faith. A prominent debater, she rose to fame by appearing in several leading Austrian and German TV Shows. In a feature story, the German Spiegel Magazine called her "God's Supermodel".

Career
Since 2006 her organization has fought for victims of honour violence and persecuted Christians in Pakistan.

In 2010 she received the "Filippas Engel" Youth Prize by Princess Gabriela zu Sayn Wittgenstein and the Ingrid zu Solms Human Rights Award in Frankfurt.

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.