Tag: Converts

Afghanistan overtakes N Korea as most dangerous place to live as a Christian

January 19, 2022 Afghanistan Boko Haram, Catholics, Churches, Converts, India, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Refugees, Religious freedom

Afghan-women-face-highly restricted lives under the Taliban

After the August 2021 takeover by the Taliban of Afghanistan, the country has overtaken North Korea as the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, according to the annual World Watch List of the NGO Open Doors International, out today. After 20 years at the top*, North . . . Read More

NGOs say changes to Sudan’s Islamic laws don’t go far enough

August 18, 2020 Sudan Apostasy, Blasphemy, Converts, Human rights, Minorities, Religious freedom, Sharia, Women

Despite the abolition in July 2020 of Sudan’s apostasy law (under which the case of Christian doctor Mariam Ibraheem, sentenced to hang in 2014, became global headline news), a group of 29 Sudanese NGOs says that its transitional government’s amendments to many of its laws do not go far enough. . . . Read More

Nigeria’s Kano State Governor converts Christian under-age girl to Islam

April 22, 2020 Nigeria Converts, Kidnapping, Nigeria, Sharia, Women

A video showing the Governor of Kano, a state in the far north of Nigeria, leading an under-age Christian girl through the act of becoming a Muslim inside his State Government House has sparked outrage on Nigerian social media. World Watch Monitor has independently confirmed the video is genuine and . . . Read More

UN Sec. General’s “biggest data gap in the world” affects persecuted Christian women

March 6, 2020 Global News -- No Particular Country Converts, Human rights, Kidnapping, Minorities, Religious freedom, Women

Women to women conference in Ethiopia, February 2018.

The UN Secretary-General last week called it ‘the biggest data gap in the world…what UK writer Caroline Criado Perez calls “default man” thinking: the unquestioned assumption that men are standard, and women the exception. Very often, women are not counted, and their experiences don’t count”. And this lack of ‘counting’ . . . Read More

‘In context of gender justice, women’s right to freedom of religion pretty much ignored’

March 19, 2019 Global News -- No Particular Country Converts, Hindu nationalism, Human rights, India, Minorities, Religious freedom, Women

Anurima Bhargava (USCIRF) and Helene Fisher (Open Doors) at UN NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief CSW side event, 14 March, 2019

She is a woman who can be identified only as “Z”, for her security. She is a Christian in India, a country that is overwhelmingly Hindu. And she is a lawyer defending women and youth from exploitation by landlords and employers, so she was pleased when she got the opportunity . . . Read More

For persecuted Christian women, violence is compounded by ‘shaming’

March 8, 2019 Global News -- No Particular Country Algeria, Colombia, Converts, Eritrea, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Women, Yemen

It would be hard to argue the world is unaware that Islamic State fighters used rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war against Iraq’s Yazidi women: Nadia Murad shared the 2018 Nobel Prize after she told the world of her personal ordeal at their hands. However, testimonies from . . . Read More

India: Christian convert killed and left on the road, beheaded

February 22, 2019 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Converts, Hindutva, India, Narendra Modi, Odisha

A street in a village in India. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An Indian man who had become a Christian last year was killed and beheaded in eastern India earlier this month, reports Persecution Relief. On 11 February, Anant Ram Gand, 40, was taken from his home in the village of Raigarh Tehsil, in the district of Nabarangapur, Odisha, by three men . . . Read More

Iran: Crackdown on Christians continues with reports of beatings

December 19, 2018 Iran Ahwaz, Converts, House churches, Iran, Karaj, Khuzestan, Mashhad

Christian leaders in Iran have said that pressure on Christians increases every year around Christmas but that this year it is particularly severe. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

At least seven Iranian Christian converts have been arrested in Iran in the last two weeks, including two sisters who allegedly have been beaten. Shima Zanganeh, 27, and her sister, Shokoufeh, 30, were arrested by Intelligence Service officials in their homes in Ahvaz, capital of Iran’s western Khuzestan province, on 2 . . . Read More

Two Iranian converts arrested and taken to unknown locations

November 21, 2018 Iran Converts, House churches, Iran, Karaj, Mashhad, Rajaei Shahr Prison

Behnam Ersali and Davood Rasooli were arrested last week Friday, 16 November. (Photo: Mohabat News, Facebook)

Two Iranian Christian converts were taken by Iran’s security agents in two separate raids on houses in Karaj and Mashhad on Friday, 16 November, reports Middle East Concern (MEC). Behnam Ersali and Davood Rasooli had agreed to meet in Mashhad on Friday when they were both arrested. It is believed . . . Read More

Young Ethiopian Christians ‘bribed’ to convert to Islam, says charity

November 19, 2018 Ethiopia Converts, Education, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Mahibere Kidusan, Youth

Young Ethiopian Christians are bribed with jobs and education prospects if they convert to Islam, according to the UK-based charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). A Christian religious leader who wished to remain anonymous told ACN that Christians who are poor were especially targeted. “The [Muslim employers] are . . . Read More

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