A nine-year-old Christian girl from Bangladesh says she has only survived extreme persecution for her faith because of Jesus’ love. She has been completely excluded at school and in wider society, is constantly bullied and has even watched her house burn down.
Rumana, whose family live in a village in northwest Bangladesh, which has an almost exclusively Muslim population. When her family became Christians, they were ostracised from the community, with even non-Muslims hesitant to associate with them due to fear of being similarly mistreated.
Rumana walks a mile to get to school by herself every day and when she gets there, no one sits near her in classes or lets her play with them during breaks, leaving her to play with her toys or make up her own games. Her teachers tell pupils not to sit near her in case they become a Christian.
Rumana told Open Doors: ‘I don’t have any friends in school because I’m a Christian and my parents are also Christian. If I sit with them, their parents scold them saying: “She is a Christian. You can’t mingle with them because Christians are bad”. When the children say something unkind, I just keep smiling. But I cry when I’m alone.’
Rumana faces tougher persecution when she walks to church; other children mock her, throw stones at her and slap her, for which she revealed that she forgives and prays for them. She also faces animosity from adults; once when her mother was working, neighbours came to her family’s house and shouted at her, even threatening to kill her. Her situation escalated to its worst when one day, she realised while walking home from school that her house was on fire. Her family lost everything.
None of their neighbours would take them in, and the family lived in a shed where their old home used to be until Open Doors partners helped them rebuild their home.
Rumana said: ‘Jesus loves me. I’m very valuable to Jesus. It’s only because of Jesus’ love that I have survived until now, despite all the persecution. His love has guided me this far, and I know I am on the right path through His love.’
Sister Hadassah, an Open Doors partner in Bangladesh who supports Rumana’s family, said: ‘Christian children and youth endure considerable levels of violence as their parents choose to follow Jesus. There are hundreds of young children of Christian converts facing similar issues. When someone is young, they are more vulnerable. Bangladesh has a strong community-based culture, so when the community cuts off the converts and isolates them, that brings huge emotional damage to the Christian children.’
