Islamic women turn to Christianity, face persecution

SINAR, Sudan — When Halima Bubkier of Sinar converted from Islam to Christianity in 2008, her husband initially accepted it without qualms.

News of her conversion spread quickly, the 35-year-old mother of three said, and Sept. 14 she came face to face with Islamic hardliners who felt her conversion to Christianity was an act of betrayal.

A few weeks later, during the daily fasts and nightly feasts of Ramadan, the Islamists blocked her husband from the communal meals because of her change in faith; he subsequently attacked her and threw her out of their home. She ran for refuge to her older brother, Nur Bubkier — who, having been informed of her conversion, responded by thoroughly beating her.

In Sahafa, three miles south of Khartoum, another woman who left Islam is under a kind of house arrest by her family members for converting to Christianity.

Senah Abdulfatah Altyab was formerly a student of laboratory science at Sudan University of Science and Technology, but today she is out of touch with the outside world. Her education came to an end after a film about Jesus Christ led to her conversion.