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Editorial: Hearing Rifqa Bary’s plea: ‘I knew this threat was real’
by JAMES A. SMITH SR.
Executive Editor
Florida Baptist Witness

Article Date: Oct 29, 2009

As Ohio judicial and child protective services accept responsibility for the welfare of Rifqa Bary—the 17-year-old runaway who fled to Orlando in July in fear of her life from her Muslim parents because of her conversion to Christianity—I pray they will consider the case of Gilda Ghanipour.

Ghanipour and Bary share several important things in common—both are ex-Muslims who found Jesus Christ which caused their families to reject them for converting and who, as a result, fear for their lives.

The widely covered case of Rifqa Bary is shifting from Florida to Ohio now that an Orlando judge has ordered she be put in the custody of Franklin County Children Services, having previously ruled her case is the proper jurisdiction of the Ohio court system. (For more about this case, see the story in this week’s edition and archived stories on the Witness Web site, www.FloridaBaptistWitness.com.)

The tragic case of Ghanipour, 49, was told in an Oct. 24, 2009, story in The Los Angeles Times: “Gilda Ghanipour has spent the last nine years on the run. Abandoned by her Muslim family for converting to Christianity, she has shuttled from one address to the next, terrified of being deported to her native Iran, where apostasy can be punished by death.”

Ghanipour came to California in 2000 on a six-month visitor visa after divorcing her husband in Germany where the couple was living, having previously fled the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

While staying with a cousin in California, “she had an encounter that would change her life. An evangelical Christian family knocked at the door,” the Times reported.

“I immediately knew in my heart that this is what I was looking for. And on the 30th of November 2000, while on a legal visit in the U.S., I received Jesus Christ as my savior and became a Christian believer,” she wrote in her asylum declaration according to the Times.

As a result of her conversion, her family rejected her and she went on the run because her visa expired and she feared being returned to her native Iran. In one five-year period alone, Ghanipour lived at 25 different addresses, the Times reported.

Last year, Ghanipour became aware of a retired immigration judge who was starting a legal clinic at Pepperdine University Law School specializing in indigent asylum clients who face religious persecution. Although warned the majority of asylum cases are rejected and the persons are deported, Ghanipour decided to pursue asylum.

In May, Ghanipour endured a 6.5 hour interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In August, her asylum was granted—but Ghanipour went missing in late July and she doesn’t know of her victory.

“Somewhere in Los Angeles, they believe, Ghanipour is wandering alone, as she has for most of the last decade, probably clutching her beloved Bible, possibly sleeping in a homeless shelter or in someone’s spare bedroom,” the Times reported.

The woman who has been on the run for nine years because her family rejected her after she converted to Christianity, knowing deportation to Iran was a possible death sentence, could very well be Rifqa Bary.

Bary, a native of Sri Lanka, has repeatedly expressed concern that if she is returned to her parents they will take her back to her native country where she will be forced to renounce Christianity or face severe consequences—including the loss of her life.

For many people, it seems far-fetched that Bary’s life could actually be endangered simply because she converted to Christianity. However, the threat is too real.

According to World Net Daily, “The United Nations tabulates about 5,000 such ‘honor killings’ annually around the world, and they have been documented even in the United States.”

On Aug. 24, 2009, Bary was interviewed by Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials investigating her case. The 108-page transcript was released last week. In the interview, Bary recounts the abuse she allegedly suffered from her father and the threat he made on her life after learning about her conversion. At one point in the interview, she breaks down crying when speaking about her fear of her father.

An especially troubling exchange in the interview involved an investigator attempting to clarify what Bary thought her father meant when he threatened her life.

“If your father were to say, ‘I’m gonna kill you,’ or words to that effect. Is that, ‘I’m going to physically make you dead?’ Or, is it, does it mean, ‘You are no longer part of my family?” the investigator asked, stressing the distinction is “very important” and “I need to make that clear.”

Bary answered, “The reason, honestly, I would not have hopped on a bus for 27 hours and all this happened if I thought I was going to be ostracized from my family. I mean, no, um, I knew this threat was real. Why? Because I heard of cases like mine so similar that is, was scary to me.”

Late in the interview, Bary said, “I’m gonna be honest, I’m really scared what’s gonna happen. I don’t know.”

Gilda Ghanipour and Rifqa Bary are just two of countless persons throughout the world whose lives are in danger because they dared to convert from Islam to Christianity. Indeed, these women’s stories—taking place right here in America—are a window into the ugly, sometimes deadly truth of Christian persecution in many nations.

Christians have a duty to these believers: “Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily” (Heb. 13:3, HCSB).

November 8 is the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church. To learn more about this worthy effort, go to www.opendoorsusa.org.

We should join other Christians in prayer for persecuted Christians around the world—and right here in America, including Rifqa Bary in Ohio.

In her FDLE interview, investigators asked if she was “touched inappropriately” by men who helped her after she arrived in Florida. “Absolutely not,” she responded. “These are people that loved and like have helped me.”

Ironically, the investigator replied, “And I can understand that. But you know, I, we’ve gotta make sure you’re, you’re protected.”

Bary responded, “No, thank you. Yeah, please do.”

Indeed, someone—now officials in Ohio—please make sure Rifqa is protected!

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