Trapped Christian Mother and Baby Persecuted in Somalia

A Young Mother’s Ordeal

On August 6, 2025, relatives of 28-year-old Fatuma Hassan forcibly confined her and her one-year-old daughter after learning she had converted to Christianity and married a Christian man. Hassan’s family reportedly dragged her back to her ancestral home in Afgooye, a town in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle region, where they locked her in a dark room with her child.

“My child has grown very thin for lack of enough food,” Hassan managed to tell her husband in a brief phone call. “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.”

Hassan, who belongs to a well-known royal family, has suffered repeated beatings at the hands of relatives who have sworn to keep her in captivity until she renounces Christianity and returns to Islam. “My family and relatives have sworn that they will not allow me to see the good sunshine until I surrender my Christian faith,” she said. “But I am praying for God’s intervention to escape and to join my husband once again.”

Her words convey both the desperation of her daily reality and the deep faith that sustains her through violence, isolation, and hunger.

A Journey of Faith and Risk

Fatuma Hassan’s story began quietly in her parents’ home, where she would secretly listen to Christian worship songs on her mobile phone. Though she did not understand all the lyrics, she recalled being deeply touched by their message. One night, she said, she experienced a vision in which Jesus appeared to her: “I know you are thirsty. Come and drink of my water.”

That moment marked the beginning of her journey of faith. Soon afterward, she accepted Christianity, keeping her new belief hidden from her devout Muslim family. But secrecy was impossible to maintain. Her father discovered her listening to the songs and confronted her, warning her to stop “listening to Christian songs related to Issa (Jesus).”

When suspicions mounted, the family confiscated her phone and locked her in a room. Months later, in March 2024, she escaped and fled to Balad town in Middle Shebelle, where she met and married a Christian man. For more than a year, she lived in hiding, but her whereabouts were betrayed when she inadvertently revealed her location to a relative. In July 2025, she was spotted again, this time while carrying her infant daughter.

Just days later, six male relatives stormed her home at dusk. Hassan’s husband managed to escape through a rear window, but Hassan was beaten and dragged away with her child. That night marked the beginning of her current captivity.

A Child Caught in the Crossfire

The plight of Hassan’s baby underscores the brutal consequences of religious intolerance in Somalia. The child, just one year old, has been denied adequate food and care by family members who consider her existence illegitimate. For them, her birth to a Christian father renders her unworthy of life.

In phone conversations with her husband, Hassan has described the baby’s fragile condition. “My child has grown very thin,” she repeated, her voice breaking. In Somali culture, where extended families hold immense authority, a mother can be forced to give up her child—or worse—if that child is deemed unacceptable to the clan. For Hassan, the threat is real and ongoing.

Somalia’s Hostile Environment for Christians

Somalia is ranked second on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most dangerous places to be a Christian. Its constitution declares Islam the state religion and forbids the practice or propagation of any other faith. Under sharia (Islamic law), leaving Islam—apostasy—is punishable by death.

These laws are not theoretical. Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group allied with al-Qaeda, controls large parts of Somalia and enforces its strict interpretation of Islam with brutal punishments, including executions for suspected converts. Even outside militant strongholds, social and family structures ensure that conversion often leads to harassment, ostracism, or death.

For women, the dangers are compounded by gender-based violence. Female converts like Hassan face forced confinement, physical abuse, and the stripping away of maternal rights. In many cases, families seek to erase both the woman’s faith and her child’s existence, seeing both as threats to clan honor.

International Concern and Call for Action

Human rights advocates warn that Hassan’s case is not isolated but part of a broader pattern of religious persecution in Somalia. Converts to Christianity often vanish without trace, with families and communities complicit in their disappearance.

The ordeal of this Christian mother and baby trapped and persecuted in Somalia illustrates the urgent need for international pressure on Somali authorities to uphold basic human rights. While the government struggles to maintain control against extremist groups, its silence on religious freedom violations leaves vulnerable individuals without recourse.

Faith-based organizations and human rights defenders are urging the global community to intervene. “We cannot stand by while women and children are punished simply for their faith,” one advocate said. “The case of this mother and her baby highlights the extreme cost of religious intolerance. International actors must press Somalia to respect freedom of belief and protect those most at risk.”

A Cry for Help

As Hassan remains in captivity, her husband lives in hiding, fearing reprisals from her family and broader clan network. He continues to appeal for prayer and support. “My wife called me saying she is back with her people but locked in a dark room,” he told sources. “She is crying out for freedom, and for her child’s life.”

For Hassan, hope lies not in family reconciliation but in escape. “I am praying for God’s intervention,” she said. “More so I need prayers from Christians.”

Her words echo countless others across Somalia whose voices remain unheard. For every individual story that emerges, many more are buried under silence, fear, and repression.

The ongoing captivity of a Christian mother and baby trapped and persecuted in Somalia is a stark reminder of the intersection between religious persecution, gender-based violence, and child rights violations. Fatuma Hassan’s courage in the face of unimaginable pressure illuminates both the resilience of faith and the cruelty of intolerance.

As international human rights organizations continue to document such cases, the urgent question remains: who will speak for the voiceless, and who will intervene to prevent mothers and children from suffering simply for choosing what they believe?

Until then, Hassan and her infant daughter remain behind locked doors, living testimonies of a struggle for faith, freedom, and survival in one of the harshest places on earth.