The forced marriage of Christian women is a “concerningly common practice” in several dozen countries with heavy Christian persecution, according to a new report from Open Doors.
The nondenominational missions organization revealed that “faith-based forced marriage” is presently a risk for Christian females in 84% of the countries around the world with “high, very high, or extremely high” levels of persecution against believers. They recommended that governments enshrine “equality before the law” to protect women from such persecution.
“Forced marriage is a form of exploitation and control and in many contexts, this risk is interwoven with sexual violence,” the report from Open Doors said. “Sexual violence and forced marriage are employed as a means of intimidation and control, with these strategies targeted at preventing Christian women and girls from pursuing their faith in Christ.”
The organization noted that threats to Christian females vary based on regional factors. In war-torn portions of Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, Christian women and girls face “bridal kidnapping on faith-based grounds” as they are “forcibly married to soldiers and other non-Christians,” most of whom are Muslim men. Conflict zones are often marked by forced marriage, as well as rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and forced abortion “used as a weapon of war to spread terror.”
Even as Christian men are at heightened risk amid situations involving armed conflict, the risk to Christian women increases when displacement of local populations occurs.
Islamic militants in Nigeria, for example, often displace nearby Christian populations. “They remain vulnerable to further attacks on a daily basis,” one local expert told Open Doors. “Fulani herders have boxed them in. Fulani herders visibly surround the camps guarding their cattle.”
Across the Middle East and North Africa, females who convert to Christianity from Islam meanwhile “risk being coerced into marrying a non-Christian man who carries some religious authority or who is committed to the faith, with the hope that he will influence them to recant.” Young girls are frequently “forcibly married to much older men” in such instances.
Open Doors recently reported that Christian persecution has increasingly worsened around the world, as one in seven Christians across the globe faces high levels of persecution as they follow Jesus. The entity reports an increased number of attacks on church properties through mob violence in India and Nigeria, the closure of house churches and digital surveillance in China, and heightened border security in North Korea that severs access to aid for believers.
