Aisha
Aisha’s dad became a Christian when she was in the third grade. Over the next few years she and her brothers and sisters also began to trust Christ under their dad’s influence. However, Aisha’s mom kept her distance from her husband’s faith because she was afraid of her fundamentalist relatives.
Along with their dad, Aisha and her siblings were careful not to put any pressure on their mom to trust Christ. Still, her mom couldn’t avoid being exposed to the teachings of Christ. Sometimes her husband and children would read the Bible or watch programs on TV that talked about how a disciple of Christ should honor his wife. Aisha’s mom would listen and then ask her husband, “How do Christians honor women?”
Aisha was also impacted by the programs for women that they watched on TV and says they attracted her to Christ even more. She says the rules are different for a girl in Christ than they are in Islam.
“In Islam the girl is not like a boy at all,” Aisha says. “In Islam the girl can’t go out or do anything, but for boys it’s the opposite. The boys are spoiled and the family does a lot for them.”
Over the years Aisha’s mom kept asking her husband questions about how Christ honored women. She began to see the differences between Christian and Muslim attitudes towards women and eventually she professed faith in Christ, too.
Aisha says she can see the differences in attitudes towards women displayed in the way her dad treats her mom. It’s different from how her mom’s fundamentalist brothers treat the women in their families. Their wives are not allowed to show their face in public. They are required to wear the most conservative dress and they rarely leave their homes.
“That’s not my dad’s way,” says Aisha. “My dad trusts my mom. I noticed that’s not true with my uncles—they don’t trust their wives. I feel that the way my dad trusted my mom was one thing that helped my mom come to faith.”
Journey with us on the way:
Give thanks for the many local believers in the local community that are willing to put their lives at risk in order to produce strategic media that can reach a broader audience in the Arabian Peninsula.
Pray that God will inspire those who are working in media production with themes and topics that will address the felt needs in people’s hearts and creative ways to convey the message.
Pray that those who are impacted by media will respond through follow-up systems or that God will bring them into contact with indigenous believers in other ways.
Pray that media targeting women will reach its target audience and that we will find strategic ways to follow up with women who are being impacted by media.
Pray that local media production efforts will become increasingly self-sustaining.