Sudanese Woman Who Faced Death Sentence Rather Than Renounce Christ to be Honored in D.C.

Photo Credit: AP / Al Fajer

Meriam Ibrahim–the Sudanese woman married to a naturalized U.S. citizen who refused to renounce her Christian faith even while facing a death sentence for it–will be honored later this month in Washington, D.C., at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit.

“Meriam’s bold stand for Jesus Christ as she faced death has touched the hearts of people in every nation,” said FRC President Tony Perkins. “Her incredible example of courage should inspire Christians in America to be bold and courageous in their faith as we witness growing religious hostility here in our country.”

Meriam, who was raised in Sudan as a Christian by her Christian mother after her Muslim father abandoned her family, married Daniel Wani in Khartoum in December 2011. Wani had moved to the United States from Sudan in 1998 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2005.

In November 2012, eleven months after they were married, Daniel and Meriam had their first child, Martin, in Sudan.

In May of this year, a Sudanese court convicted Ibrahim of “apostasy,” because her father had been a Muslim and she professed Christianity. The court also convicted her of “adultery” because it refused to recognize her marriage to a Christian as legitimate. The court sentenced her to die for her alleged “apostasy” and to be whipped for her purported “adultery.”