A Christian mother in Somalia has been locked in a room with her infant daughter since Aug. 6 after Muslim relatives relocated her following an earlier escape, sources said.
“My child has grown very thin for lack of enough food,” Fatuma Hassan, 28, told her husband by phone from Afgooye town, in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle Region. “My child is unwanted in the family, who say, ‘Throw away this bastard kid born of an infidel – we want you back, but not the child who deserves no right to live.’ I am always crying for my baby and hope one day I will escape this terrible ordeal to attain my peace and freedom.”
Though Hassan is from a royal family, since accepting Christ she now lives with danger in inhumane conditions as she nurses injuries from relatives beating her, sources said.
“My family and relatives have sworn that they will not allow me to seen the good sunshine until I surrender my Christian faith and return back to Islam,” Hassan told Morning Star News. “But I am praying for God’s intervention to escape and to join my husband once again. More so I need prayers from Christians.”
Before putting her faith in Christ and while still living at her parents’ home, she used to listen to Christian worship songs on her mobile phone, locking herself inside her bedroom, though she did not understand the lyrics. The songs touched her heart, and she had a vision of a person identifying Himself as Issa (Jesus) telling her, “I know you are thirsty. Come and drink of my water,” she said.
“Since then, I started experiencing abundant peace and followed Him,” Hassan said.
Her father overheard her listening to the songs on several occasions.
“I have discovered that you have been listening to hearsay about a bad religion, and I am warning you to stop listening to Christian songs related to Issa,” he told her, according to Hassan.
The family took the phone from her and locked her in a room, until one day in March 2024 she found an opportunity to escape, she said. She fled to Balad town in the Middle Shabelle Region, where she met and married a Christian, unidentified for security reasons.
She remained hidden from her family for more than a year. In June, Hassan let her location slip to a relative, and again on July 30, this time carrying her 1-year-old baby, she ran into the same relative at a marketplace. The relative informed other Muslim relatives.
After relatives surveilled her and learned that she had a Christian husband, six of them on Aug. 6 journeyed to Hassan’s home, arriving at 6 p.m.
Hassan told her husband to lock himself in the bedroom, and her Muslim relatives entered the house silently. They began questioning her about her absence of more than a year and the whereabouts of her husband, she said. Hassan did not answer.
One relative slapped her while another dashed outside, returning with a stick and beating her.
“My wife started screaming,” her husband told Morning Star News. “I escaped through the rear window. After three days, my wife called me saying she is back with her people but locked in a dark room.”
Family and relatives continue to subject her to all manner of insults, sources said.
Somalia is ranked 2nd on Christian support group Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Its constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims.
The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence. An Islamic extremist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, is allied with Al Qaeda and adheres to the teaching.
