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Ariana* still remembers her brother's words to her when he learned she had become a Christian: "If you're under pressure, I can come and save you," he said. "But if you really betrayed your religion, I'll come and kill you. I don't care if I spend my life in prison."
This is the kind of violent response any Afghan can expect if they choose Jesus. But for Afghan women—who have little to no freedom of choice over anything—leaving Islam for Christianity makes them doubly vulnerable. Like all women who follow Christ in strict settings, Ariana is in danger of being erased.
"It's the presence of God that brings peace in these hard times."
Ariana*, Afghan believer
"In my neighborhood, the men acted like dictators, and the women had to obey them completely," Ariana remembers, thinking back to how she grew up. "In Afghanistan, women did not have the right to choose their spouse. And where I lived, women didn't have the right to choose their education. They had no freedom to study up to the 12th grade or become a doctor or a teacher."
In Afghanistan, few women are allowed to choose even whom they marry, so when others found out that Ariana was secretly exchanging love letters with a young man from her village, her innocent romance became a scandal. To avoid further outrage, Ariana’s family married her off to the young man. But unbeknownst to Ariana, her new in-laws were secret believers.
It wasn't until the family had fled to Central Asia that Ariana learned their secret. In their new surroundings, far from home, they told her how a Russian man had shared the gospel with them, and they invited Ariana to embrace their faith and go to church with them. Realizing that Jesus brought her the true freedom she had searched for all her life, she eventually accepted Jesus and day by day has grown in her love for Him. She also came to realize the risk of her new faith in an Afghan context.
"I realized that women were raped, beaten and even publicly shamed for leaving their religion," she says.
In this new country, Open Doors partners caught up with Ariana, who gave us a rare glimpse of life as an Afghan Christian woman, both in her homeland and now in her new home.
While Ariana no longer faces immediate violence in Afghanistan, she isn't free from danger. She knows she and her family could be deported back to Afghanistan at any minute, where they would be executed for being Afghans who betrayed their religion.
But she also knows she has been called for a purpose.
"I was born into a Muslim family and was raised in a very restrictive society, so this thing that I have tasted from God, knowing the way, the truth, and the life, I want [other Afghans] to also taste this salt of life and to drink this living water," she shares. "In Matthew 28:19, Jesus says, 'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.' This motivates me because I consider it a duty that I must do."
Today, Ariana boldly shares the love of an unfailing God with other refugees who are lost in fear.
"We meet women to share God's Word and pray together," she says. "Some of them are Muslim. They are grateful and say, 'When you come, we find peace.'"
With your prayers and support, our local partners are equipping believers like Ariana to disciple others—providing aid, training and care to restore strength to women who live with the very real fear of being erased. Together, we are building up a new generation of Afghan believers who risk everything to follow Jesus and giving silenced women a voice.
Ariana is quick to say that her strength comes from God.
"I know it's not really me because I'm nobody," she says. "It's the presence of God that brings peace in these hard times. I truly believe God sends us to be with each other."
*Name changed for security reasons.
