DOCUMENTING THE EXPERIENTIAL NARRATIVES OF INSTITUTIONALIZED PERSECUTION AMONGST AHMADI STUDENTS: AN IN-DEPTH QUALITATIVE STUDY

The current qualitative inquiry employed phenomenological approach to enter into the lived realities of Ahmadi students undergoing organized persecution at a medical college in Pakistan. The study aimed to gather a deeper understanding into the phenomenon of persecution arising out of a situated event that led to rustication of 22 Ahmadi students from their college on basis of ‘religious preaching’. Data was collected primarily through in-depth interviews conducted with 10 Ahmadi students. The purpose was also to link these experiences to generate a broader phenomenon of ‘persecution' and 'experience of being subjected to persecution'. The study gave rise to a range of themes describing the process of religious persecution as experienced by the students. It revealed that persecution led to a transformation within the personalities of the students, disorientation with self and others, loneliness and alienation amongst peers and friends, fear for life and insecurity expressed through dreams, and deformed their identities in a number of ways.