Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman who was imprisoned in Khartoum and sentenced to a death penalty for refusing to give up her Christian faith, was released from prison and safely arrived in New Hampshire last month with her husband, Daniel Wani, and her two children. In a recent interview with Fox News, she shared her experiences from prison for the first time.
“The situation was difficult, but I was sure that God would stand by my side. I relied only on my faith, and I knew that God would stand by me at any time and in any situation,” Ibrahim shared.
Ibrahim was arrested on charges of apostasy, or giving up the Islamic faith. However, Ibrahim argued that she was never Muslim, and that although her father was a Muslim, he abandoned her family when she was a child. She said she had been raised by her mother as a Christian for her entire life. Regardless, according to the sharia law that Sudan abides by, the father’s religion determines the religion for all of the children in the family.
Ibrahim also shared that while she was imprisoned, she faced extreme pressures to convert to Islam.
“While I was in prison, some people came to visit me from the Muslim Scholars Association,” she said in the interview. “These were imams that created an intervention by reciting parts of the Koran for me. I faced a tremendous amount of pressure.”
“I had my trust in God,” she continued. “My faith was the only weapon that I had in these confrontations with imams and Muslim scholars, because that’s what I believe.”
One of the most difficult trials that she had to endure was giving birth inside the prison.
“I was supposed to give birth at a hospital outside of prison, but they denied that request as well. When it was time to give birth, they refused to remove the chains from my ankles. So I had to give birth with chains on my ankles,” she said.
Despite the pressures to convert, the physical pain that she had to endure, and threats of the death penalty and 100 lashes as legal punishment, Ibrahim said, “I would never leave my faith.”
She said denying her faith and saying what the authorities wanted to hear was “impossible because it’s not true.”
“It’s my right to follow the religion of my choice,” she said.
“There are many Meriams in Sudan and throughout the world,” Ibrahim shared. “It’s not just me. I’m not the only one.”
Ibrahim said that in the future, she wants to help women and children in Sudan and Africa, and promote freedom of religion.
