Women and girls are easy targets for religious persecution, and their plight is commonly compounded when shunned by their very own church communities after escaping their captors, say experts on gender-based persecution.
The vulnerabilities faced by Christian women who’re a part of the religious minority in South Asia and African nations were the main target of a panel moderated by Emma van der Deijl, the CEO of Gender and Religious Freedom, on the World Evangelical Alliance’s 14th General Assembly, held at SaRang Church last Tuesday.
Irene Kibagendi, executive director of the Pan African Christian Women Alliance, homed in on the abuses suffered by women in Nigeria, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sharing the accounts of young women which have turn into all too common, she laid bare the truth that “they’re the simple targets.”
Kibagendi explained that girls are sometimes kidnapped when they are going to school and are subsequently forced to convert to Islam — a prevalent problem that has been reported by The Christian Post quite a few times for greater than a decade.
After being kidnapped and raped — often by multiple men — these young women lose their self-worth and identity. And after they manage to flee their captors and seek reunification and healing within the communities from which they were forcefully kidnapped, they often face rejection.
“Despite being persecuted for being a Christian, after they come back to the Church, they don’t seem to be accepted,” Kibagdendi lamented, noting that usually upon their return, they’re either pregnant or have already given birth to children fathered by militants affiliated with terrorist groups, comparable to Boko Haram or al-Shabaab.
“They’re rejected by their families. Their husbands cannot accept them back. The Church cannot accept them back,” she added, pointing to the necessity for systems to permit for reunification and recovery as a substitute of discarding the victimized women as outcasts in society.
According to van der Deijl, “It’s as if women and girls who’re targeted now turn into an enemy of the Church. Or it’s as if the Church thinks that the blood of Christ is not strong enough to cleanse these women or to maintain the Church pure.”
“The enemy wins after we allow the intended shame of persecution to bring division and rejection within the Church,” added van der Deijl, who incessantly pointed to Satan’s plans to sow division amongst believers. “Instead, it’s our responsibility to revive those that have passed through persecution with love and acceptance within the knowledge that their vulnerability and identity is secure in Christ. And this is just not just true for ladies, but additionally for the boys and kids of our Church.”
In an earlier interview with The Christian Post about gender-based persecution, Sarah Cunningham, the chief operating officer at Open Doors US, spoke concerning the long-term psychological impact of persecution, including PTSD, anxiety and the social withdrawal of victims.
Women who’ve been raped are “carrying stigma and shame due to these sorts of hidden, secretive, very intimate violations against them,” she said. “And oftentimes, the long-term impact is to their psyche.”
Some women also fear that “something else equally violent could occur to them at any given moment,” Cunningham added, rendering feelings of “powerlessness,” causing them to withdraw from society.
Despite the discouraging circumstances, van der Deijl noted that some churches have been “stepping outside of the cultural norm” to walk alongside these women in need of recovery and reintegration into their families and society. Thus, placing blame on the perpetrator, not on the victim.
The Rev. Martha Das, general secretary of the National Christian Fellowship of Bangladesh, also addressed the cultural issues inside churches operating in Christian-minority countries where followers of Jesus often face ridicule, discrimination and violence.
While some faith-based organizations are helping vulnerable Christians facing persecution in South Asia by providing food, shelter and work, Das told delegates gathered at WEA’s General Assembly that churches “wish to be perfect” and are less more likely to be open to providing assistance to people in “messy” circumstances.
“There’s not a spot of their community to get care,” Cunningham told CP of many ladies who’ve been victimized in minority-Christian countries. “There’s no secure person to talk to necessarily about that physical trauma they experienced. And so that they’re carrying that internally in a really hidden way.”
Kibagendi insisted that churches worldwide have a responsibility to assist “integrate persecuted women and kids back to the community without judging them.”
“We need the Church to turn into a rescue place or space for everyone who needs help,” she added. “We have to care more, and we’d like to take a look at those people who find themselves going through shame in order that we do not inflict the identical onto them.”
She continued, “The Church must also be prepared to answer such cases and supply care groups to assist, especially the young girls to be restored; that the dignity of the young women and girls be restored.”
The WEA General Assembly was hosted by the 60,000-member SaRang Church within the nation’s capital, and brought together over 850 Evangelicals from world wide.
The theme of the final assembly was “The Gospel for Everyone by 2033,” and most of the sessions focused on how this ambitious goal can turn into a reality with only eight years to go.
On the last day of meetings, delegates were presented with the WEA’s Seoul Declaration, a 15-page document crafted by a global group of theologians, including eight from South Korea. It offers Evangelical position statements on a spread of issues, from gender and human sexuality to war, abortion, religious freedom, and continued divisions on the Korean Peninsula.
A spokesperson for the WEA said the statement was intended to be a “guiding post” for members, with rigorously considered theological perspectives on key issues on this planet today and “how the Church should have direction for the long run.”
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