A Somali woman who gave her life to Christ after watching a film about Jesus has faced extreme hardship since her conversion.
The 31-year-old was ostracized by her Muslim father and husband earlier this year and has been forced to flee.
According to Morning Star News, which reports on the persecution of Christians, the woman has three children, all under the age of ten, and was told to leave the family home in Jamaame village, Kismayo, in March.
Speaking to the independent news outlet, she said, "I do not regret embracing Christianity; I have great peace in my heart."
The woman’s name has not been released for security reasons. It is also not known what the title of the film was that she watched.
"Issa [Jesus] has been providing for me and the children for the last three months, and I know He will continue providing."
She said she continued to watch the film to gain strength in the early days and shared it with her mother, who began asking questions about Jesus. When the woman felt she couldn't answer them, she showed the film to her father, and the family watched it together during Ramadan.
"While watching the film on the suffering of Jesus on the cross, I found myself shedding tears and uttering the words, 'Oh, an innocent Son of God suffering for the sins of humanity,'" she said. "My father was shocked to see me crying and asked why. He was troubled by my saying Jesus is the Son of God."
Her father claimed the film was from the Devil, insisted Jesus was a prophet and not the Son of God, and told her she had to leave the family home.
When her husband returned from working away, he agreed with her father. They gave her three months to renounce her new Christian faith and return to Islam, but she refused.
The woman said her mother had also been moved by the story of Jesus and joined her in exile for a time but eventually returned to the family.
This month, the woman’s husband divorced her. She also says members of the community have sent her death threats.
"I have received threatening messages from two of my relatives, saying it would be better to kill me than allow me to remain a Christian, since I’ve become an apostate and should be killed," she said.
The woman has fled with her children to an area near the Kenyan border, but she now struggles financially and must take on manual labor to pay for food, school fees, and housing. She has called on the wider Christian community to pray for her.
The situation for Christians in Somalia is perilous. Christianity is not explicitly illegal under national law, but in practice, it is effectively outlawed due to a combination of Sharia law and militant control. Sharia law guides all legal matters, and conversion from Islam to Christianity is not legally protected. It is widely considered apostasy, which is punishable by death under many interpretations of Sharia law.
In addition, Al-Shabaab—a violent Islamic militant group at war with the government—controls large parts of the country and is committed to eradicating Christianity from Somalia.
According to the charity Open Doors, which highlights the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide, Somalia ranks number two on its World Watch List.