Meriem Ibrahim speaks up for the first time after near death experience in Sudan for marrying a Christian
Religion is a personal thing, so should be by choice and not by force. For the first time, Sudanese mother of two who narrowly escaped death for marrying her Christian sweetheart speaks up.
According to Daily Mail UK, Sudanese mother Meriam Ibrahim who escaped the death penalty for marrying a Christian today said she will start a new life in the U.S. ‘like a real family’ and ‘trust in God as I always have done’.
In her first comments since arriving in Italy after her ordeal at the hands of the barbaric Sudanese authorities, Meriam said: ‘Thanks to God we are all fine. I trusted God from the first instant. I knew that he would not abandon me.’
It also emerged today that Meriam only learned that she would leave Sudan just two hours before she boarded the plane to Rome after months of behind-the-scenes diplomatic wrangling.
When Meriam, a trained doctor, landed with her husband, Daniel Wani and their two children yesterday they were given an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican. He blessed Meriam and her baby daughter, Maya, who she gave birth to on a prison floor two months ago.
Talking to Antonella Napoli, a campaigner for Italians for Darfur, Meriam said going to the Vatican was ‘like a dream’. She said it was ‘the peak in the faith which I have never abandoned.’
She added: ‘Even when they condemned me to death I never thought of renouncing my religion. When I was asked to renounce my religion I knew what I was risking. But I didn’t want to do it.’
Meriam, 27, said she now hopes to start a new life in the U.S. ‘like a real family’ in the next few days, where her husband is a U.S. citizen and lives with his brother, Gabriel, in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Daniel had been in Sudan since her arrest in a bid to free his family and it cost him his job as a biochemist.
Meriam had been held in a notorious women’s prison, shackled and with their 21-month-old son, Martin. The toddler was not allowed to live with his Christian father because the authorities considered him a Muslim.
She said: ‘I will put my trust in God as I always have done. We will start a new life. My husband is a chemist but he lost his job because of my story. Now we will go and live in New Hampshire. We will all be together like a real family.’
But she said she will never be able to return to Sudan, where she once owned a business. ‘I will never go back,’ she said. ‘My family wouldn’t let me.’
The case drew worldwide attention in May when she was sentenced to death over charges of apostasy. A daughter of a Muslim father, Meriam was raised by her Christian mother.
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Mr Daniel Wani-husband