3 ways your support is helping persecuted women in Asia

Christian women often face persecution for their faith and their gender. But your gifts and prayers are making big differences in the lives of women across Asia – here’s how.

Any persecuted Christian faces significant difficulties and opposition for following Jesus. Women and girls of the persecuted church face a second vulnerability: discrimination for their gender. In different contexts, that could mean a persecuted woman or girl is treated as a second-class citizen, abused by her husband, father or brother, trafficked or sold into marriage, the victim of sexual violence, or left to fend for herself and her children if her own loved ones disown her for her faith.

But in the face of all this, God still sees His daughters. He continues to pursue each Christian woman or girl, reminding her that she is seen, known and loved.

One of the ways He does this is through your gifts and prayers. Here are stories of your courageous sisters, in different countries across Asia, whose lives have been changed thanks to you.

Adult literacy and spreading the gospel in Bangladesh

Almost every day, Rasheda Begum is faced with mocking, bullying and discrimination from some of the people in her village in northern Bangladesh. Having grown up with a Muslim background, when she chose to follow Jesus she encountered a lot of opposition and persecution. Women already face discrimination in the male-dominant society, but being a woman from a religious minority makes life even harder.

“I have to face many challenges every day,” says Rasheda. “People don’t like that I’m active in society. They don’t like that I have a good relationship with my neighbours, and I stand with them when they need help.”

When Rasheda started teaching adult literacy classes, after doing Open Doors training, the local Muslim leaders weren’t happy. They used underhand tactics to try and stop her: “They brought many false accusations against me. They tried to attack me, because I didn’t listen to them.” Rasheda stayed strong, and continued her work. “My life is for the Lord. I do not fear the village leaders. I cannot stop my work that was entrusted by the Lord just because of the villagers’ threats.”

She’s had a great response from the women she teaches. “They are very inspired by the stories from the Bible,” says Rasheda. “I use the skills and lessons I have gained from the [Open Doors’] adult literacy training. I tell the stories from the Bible and help them to relate to their personal life. They want more to learn and listen to such wonderful stories from the Bible. I always try to support and encourage women to be independent, think freely, see freely.”

Rasheda’s class is a mixture of believers from a Muslim background and Muslim women. During the class, a number of the Muslim women chose to follow Jesus and become Christians – though some are doing this in secret, because of the severe opposition they’d face from their families. Rasheda baptised seven women last year, and others are preparing for baptism. Even those who aren’t Christians ask Rasheda to pray for them.

Rasheda is delighted by the fruit she is seeing – which all started with Open Doors training to teach adult literacy. Praise God!

Blessing weavers in the Philippines

In Muslim-majority southern Philippines, choosing to follow Jesus often means losing the support of your family. As well as the emotional pain this rejection causes, most believers from Muslim backgrounds in the southern Philippines also find it difficult to get jobs or income to support their families and church communities.

Thanks to the gifts and prayers of Open Doors supporters, the Kalohatan Mat Project has been set up so that women who’ve converted from Islam have the opportunity to earn a living, send their children to school and get financial independence. Most of them experience intersectional discrimination – as well as facing discrimination for their faith and gender, they are from one of the poorest and most oppressed and mistreated ethnic groups in the area.

Despite the opposition these women endure, they haven’t lost hope – that’s why it’s called the Kalohatan Mat Project, because ‘kaholatan’ means ‘hope’ in their language. In the project, women hone their natural talent for weaving using pandan leaves, and also learn how to sew on high-speed sewing machines.

“I did not expect that God would bless me with this kind of living,” says Merita, a participant in the project. “I can buy my family the things we need. God has blessed me with things that I never imagined I would achieve. I am happy today. Even with all the problems in life, I am ready to work for God and serve Him.”

Women valued and marriages restored in Vietnam

“God changed my husband and children, they love and respect me more than before,” says Binh*, a participant of Priscilla Women’s Training, run by Open Doors partners thanks to your gifts and prayers.

The training helps disciple women, deepening their faith and affirming their worth in Christ. It aims to empower women in remote rural tribes to realise their God-given role in family, society and the church. Even better, part of the programme includes the women’s husband attending – so each man can also learn about strengthening the family, and gain a godly perspective of his wife. As well as testimonies like Binh’s, the training has seen alcoholic and abusive husbands giving up drinking.

“The more we learn the Word of God through this programme, the more valuable things we discover, helping our spiritual life to grow more mature,” Huong*, another participant shares. “We learned that there are many things that needed to be changed by God so that we could live to please God and benefit others, bringing many people to Him.”

Huong also found that the programme helped solve problems in her marriage that she and her husband had previously thought couldn’t be rectified. “The touching part was the time of ‘re-engagement’ which enabled us to once again commit ourselves to God and to each other, to renew our marriage in the love of God, so that through our family, God's name was revealed to those around us,” she says.

“We thank God and His servants who are teachers and benefactors who have helped us so much,” says another woman who took part.

Binh and Huong were among the 1,634 women trained in Vietnam by Open Doors local partners in 2021, who aim to reach 2,500-3,000 more women in 2022. And it doesn’t end there – the Christian women who’ve attended the course are now passing on what they’ve learned to other persecuted women in their communities.

*Names changed for security reasons