Zakie found the God who sees her

Zakie* is a courageous woman whose story reflects the reality of countless Afghan women who choose to follow Jesus in one of the most dangerous places on earth to be both a woman and a Christian.

Her story is a reminder of how some women’s names and voices are in danger of being erased because of their faith in Christ.

Being born into a devout Muslim family, Zakie’s* days revolved around the rigid clockwork of trying to keep up with Islamic law.

Worship in Islam had a separate time,” Zakie says. “For example, when you wake up, the sun shouldn’t be up when you pray. If the sun was up, they would say the prayer is not valid. We also had to pray in the evening before it was night. At bedtime, we had to pray at a proper time. If it wasn’t at the proper time, we would be humiliated by our father or whoever is the head of the family. So, as long as I was single, I was forced in this way that when I was with my family.”
Zakie also shared: “In Islam, they always instilled a fear of God. They said if you don’t pray, for example, you can’t go to heaven. If you don’t fast, you’re not pure in Islam, not a proper Muslim.”

This led Zakie to believe for most of her life that God was a terrifying scorekeeper waiting for His creations to make a mistake. So she did her best to be a faithful Muslim, but lived under the fear of being condemned by God.

But the pressure and fear didn’t stop there. As a woman in Afghanistan, every aspect of her existence was controlled by strict rules.

“Our heads had to be covered, our faces had to be covered, we had to wear large clothes, our hands had to be covered, and our bodies had to be covered all the way to the feet,” Zakie explains. From her experience, she says, “A woman is always seen as inferior. They don’t give women rights and privileges. They use a woman as a slave, as a sexual slave.”

Sadly, like so many other women in Afghanistan, Zakie’s life was not her own…

From a young age, her life was planned out for her. As she neared the completion of high school, she was given in marriage. Her husband was also a Muslim, so her life of quiet obedience continued. She had merely traded her father’s authority for her husband’s.

Finding freedom through love
She never imagined that true freedom was possible – until she witnessed her husband’s transformation. A man once quick to retaliate, harsh and dismissive, he began to change. Over time, his anger vanquished. He began to show affection. He forgave.

He had found Jesus.

When her husband finally shared that he had become a Christian, following his lead to faith in Christ was not a difficult decision.

“When I saw the changes in my husband’s life, I also came to faith,” Zakie says. Hearing that God loved the world enough to send His Son reshaped everything she thought she knew about Him.

Her husband shared with her John 3:16, that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

“This encouraged me even more, and I came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Hearing about God’s radical love shattered the image of the angry, distant God she had grown up with. Witnessing her husband’s transformation proved to her that this God was real, powerful and full of love.

Being seen and seeing
Through her conversion, Zakie, like Hagar in the wilderness, had found El Roi – “the God who sees me”.

She had found a Saviour who saw her.

Not as a failure.

Not as someone to control.

Not as a disappointment.

But as someone deeply known and loved.

As Zakie and her husband’s faith took root, God began touching every area of their lives. They were transformed day by day.

“In the past, if someone wronged us, we would not forgive them,” she says. “Not at all. That unforgiveness and the problems that came our way felt like a very heavy weight on our shoulders. When we came to faith, this weight and these problems were lifted from our shoulders; they went away. We became light. As God says, ‘Love your God and love your neighbour as yourself.’ This had a great impact on our lives.”

Zakie once lived a life controlled by the rules of Afghanistan’s strict interpretation of Islam, but after accepting Christ, she began experiencing true freedom. Her interactions with God were no longer about fear, but about an intimate relationship with the one who sees and loves her.

“I was freed from the chains and bonds of [my past faith],” she says. “I can worship my God at any time, without a schedule, I can praise my God, I can pray. It has no set time. At any time, we can praise our God, worship Him, and glorify His name.

“Peace came into my life,” Zakie continues. “In the past, I was very heartbroken. I was always thinking about how I hadn’t worshipped God, I hadn’t fasted, I hadn’t made sacrifices. I thought I couldn’t reach heaven. But now that I have come to faith, there have been many changes. Thank God, when I pray, when I worship, and when we glorify the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I’m glad that now I am saved, that God has chosen me, I have a place in the Kingdom of God, and I have obtained eternal salvation.”

Newfound faith put to the test
But that assurance was quickly put to the test. After all, Zakie is a Christian woman from Afghanistan and in tight-knit communities like Zakie’s, secrets are hard to keep.

Soon, her and her husband’s newfound faith was too obvious to hide. The rejection was swift and intense, as leaving Islam is viewed as a betrayal of family and their culture.

The hostility ran so deep that even when a relative died, she was prohibited from attending the funeral.

Dangerous fellowship
Zakie was not alone in this suffering. She remembers a friend who was a secret believer; neither her husband nor her relatives knew she had become a Christian. Zakie often called her on Sundays, pretending to invite her for recreational activities as a cover for attending church.

Sadly, her friend’s husband found out about her conversion and prohibited her from attending church.

“He had told her, ‘You must not talk with Zakie. You must not message her. You shouldn’t even greet her when you see her on the street. If I see you with Zakie again, talking together, I will cut off your ears and nose and throw you out of the house, and I will take the children away.’”

With four children to protect, Zakie’s friend had no choice but to obey. The final text message Zakie received from her still weighs heavily on her heart. However, Zakie finds consolation in the fact that her friend has not abandoned her faith, despite the brutality she endures from her husband.

“He would beat [my friend], always insulting, humiliating, and rejecting her,” Zakie says. “Because he had gradually figured out that his wife had come to faith. His wife believed in Jesus Christ; she still does.”

Breaking point
Zakie’s family could endure the social rejection, but soon the hostility turned violent. Villagers reported them to the Taliban. The extremists knew who they were, and there was no escape. And so they were targeted to the point where they couldn’t stay in their home anymore.

“We were always going from one house to another, out of fear that they would kill us and take our daughters from us.”

The danger reached a breaking point just three months before the Taliban completely took over Afghanistan in 2021.

One day, while visiting with relatives, a man on a motorcycle shot Zakie’s husband. By God’s grace, he survived, but the message was clear: Leave or die. So the same night they took her husband to the hospital, is the night they then fled Afghanistan.

The decision to leave was agonising. Zakie had just given birth and had to care for a newborn while helping her wounded husband. Yet, staying meant risking that the Taliban would kidnap her daughters – a common practice where young girls are taken as brides or servants.

Holding on to hope
Today, Zakie and her family are living safely in a Central Asian country. Though she is far from home, her heart remains with the women of her homeland. She is now working with refugee women who’ve suffered immense trauma, just as she did.

“I do discipleship with women, because there are women who’ve experienced much trauma and have seen many problems. I share the Word of God with them, and share the love of God with them,” Zakie explains.

As a Christian, she’s still at risk in her community. But even amid persecution and the testing of her faith, she holds onto hope because she knows who Jesus is.

“For me, Jesus is Lord, Saviour, and Healer. Jesus is everything to me,” says Zakie. “What gives me hope is that I have found the living God, and that the living God has taken a place in my heart and that I have eternal life. I have a close relationship with my God. This is what brings me joy. In every situation, God is with me. This is my joy and peace.”

While the world may try to erase women like Zakie, the God who met Hagar in the wilderness still sees His daughters.

You can help support our persecuted sisters today through your gift. Your gift can ensure they’re seen, valued and empowered to reach their God-given potential.

*Name changed for security reasons.