Tag: Women

Colombia: the #OfCourseMeToo of Christian women and girls

March 7, 2018 Colombia Children, Colombia, FARC, Religious freedom, Women

In the Arhuaca culture girls as young as 14 are forced to marry men who maintain their indigenous beliefs, to make the girls forget about their Christian religion. (Photo: World Watch Monitor

If Christian women in Colombia could decide on a hashtag, it could be ‘OfCourseMeToo’: many of them also experience sexual violence, facing extra vulnerability because of their religion as well as their gender. Soraya*,15, and her family belong to one of the four tribes that form the indigenous community of . . . Read More

Pakistan: Christian family attacked for helping build church wall

March 6, 2018 Pakistan Blasphemy, Churches, Faisalabad, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Sahiwal, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, Women

Five members of a Christian family in northeast Pakistan were attacked and injured as they helped to build a boundary wall around their church on Sunday, 4 March. The pastor of the Pakistan Gospel Assemblies church in Yousufwala village, on the outskirts of the Punjabi city of Sahiwal, told World . . . Read More

India: Six Christians injured following Hindu attack over baby’s burial

March 5, 2018 India Children, Elections, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Odisha, Women

One of the victims of the attack on Christian families in Odisha that left some critically injured. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Six Christians were badly injured and a house torched in an attack by Hindu extremists in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, following the death and burial of a Christian baby. The incident occurred on 27 February in Tangaguda, a town in Malkangiri District, where three Christian families live alongside . . . Read More

Russia: ‘Extremist’ identified after five women killed in Dagestan church attack

February 19, 2018 Russia Caucasus, Central Asia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Islamic extremism, Patriarch Kirill, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Sufi, Women

Authorities in one of the least stable parts of Russia have identified the suspected gunman who killed five women at a church yesterday (18 February) before being shot dead by security forces. The mayoral office in Kizlyar, in the restive and ethnically diverse region of Dagestan, named the assailant as . . . Read More

UK Parliament hears ‘squeeze’ of persecution of Christians ‘as dangerous as violence’

January 18, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Blasphemy, Children, Commonwealth, Egypt, India, London, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Sweepers, UK, Women, Youth

Christian women are particularly vulnerable because of their gender and their faith. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Most of the 200 million Christians globally under pressure for their faith don’t experience violence but a ‘daily squeeze’ which is more insidious and – if left unchallenged – can lead to violence, MPs and others heard yesterday (17 January) at the launch of Open Doors’ World Watch List 2018 . . . Read More

Nigeria: Boko Haram survivor and her baby ‘shamed’

December 1, 2017 Nigeria Acid attacks, Boko Haram, Borno, Converts, Gwoza, Islamic extremism, Nigeria, Rape, Trauma, UN, West Africa, Women

Boko Haram survivor Esther*, holding her daughter Rebecca in her arms. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

As Islamic extremist group Boko Haram continues to hold young women captive in West Africa, some have been rescued only to return to their homes in shame, finding themselves labelled “Boko Haram women”. Until October 2015 Esther* lived the normal life of a 17-year-old in Gwoza, a town in southern . . . Read More

Iranian Christian women describe ‘world’s most brutal prison’

November 29, 2017 Iran Abdol-Ali Pourmand, Evin Prison, House churches, Iran, Khuzestan, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, Maryam Rostampour, Marziyeh Amirizadeh, Mohammed Ali Torabi, Prisons, Women

Two Iranian Christian women who once faced the threat of execution for their faith have described the conditions inside Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, calling it “the most brutal prison in the world”. Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh, who spent eight months there in 2009/10, now live in the US, where . . . Read More

Coptic girl, 16, rescued 92 days after Islamists kidnapped her

October 5, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Minya, Women

A 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl kidnapped on 28 June to be “converted to Islam, then married off or sold”, was released and returned to her family on 30 September after police found her and arrested her kidnappers in a city just outside Cairo. Marilyn was recovered from a city named . . . Read More

India: yoga centre accused of forcibly reconverting women and girls to Hinduism

September 29, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Converts, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Kerala, Kochi, Pune, Women

Police in the south-western Indian state of Kerala have launched an investigation into a complaint by a woman in her twenties who says she was detained and harassed for 22 days at a yoga centre because she had married a Christian, according to The Times of India. A case was . . . Read More

Women in Tunisia now free to marry spouse of choice

September 15, 2017 Tunisia Islamic extremism, Middle East, North Africa, Tunisia, Women

A group of women in Tunisia. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Women in Tunisia can now marry whomever they wish, even if their spouse is a non-Muslim, reports the BBC. The announcement today was made by the spokeswoman for President Beji Caid Essebsi. Previously, only men in the 99 per cent Muslim nation had the freedom to marry a non-Muslim, while, . . . Read More

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