Christian girls living in far-flung communities in Colombia are being forced into marriage to make them renounce their faith.
Open Doors revealed that young girls are coerced to marry within the community to prevent them from communicating with their Christian family and to ensure that their children will not be raised in the faith, reports Premier.
Indigenous people who convert to Christianity are often forcibly displaced from their indigenous communities or excluded from receiving certain benefits by traditional authorities. —Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Indigenous communities are very private, traditional and loyal to their own religion that Christians are treated as traitors. To stop Christianity from spreading in their community, Christian girls are married off at a young age. Once married, she has no choice but to live with her husband and obey his rules.
The Christian anti-persecution charity also disclosed that a 17-year-old Christian girl was forced to live in the mountains after she stood firm in her faith in front of local authorities.
Christian women in Colombia face persecution. They endure imprisonment, abuse, isolation, and forced marriages at an early age because of their faith. Even basic human rights such as education and health care are denied to them.
In Open Doors World Watch List, Colombia ranked as the 47th worst country in the world to live as a Christian.
Meantime, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) published a report in 2018 stating that, “Indigenous people who convert to Christianity are often forcibly displaced from their indigenous communities or excluded from receiving certain benefits by traditional authorities.”
The report condemned the suffering Colombian Christians face which includes “restrictions on religious activity, threats, extortion, assassination, and forced displacement” of church leaders, according to Evangelical Focus.
The CSW said 13% of religious leaders in Bogotá have received death threats, 4.1% have faced extortion and 3.9% have been threatened with kidnapping.
