Beaten and thrown out for apostasy

This is *Sharmin’s story. It is an uncomfortable read about a young woman’s fight against being forced into religious worship.

She is one of many vulnerable people we speak to every day in our Faith to Faithless work, which is some of the most emotionally challenging work that we do at Humanists UK. But it is vital, potentially life-saving and unique work.

Sharmin’s family wanted her to be a devout Muslim, using regular violent beatings to force her to pray. They chose religion over love. As she grew up these tactics got harsher and a ‘religious’ marriage was being arranged to try to stop her leaving the faith she was born into.

Every day, apostates like Sharmin, have their lives threatened, and sometimes those beautiful lives are violently taken because their family will not allow them to choose their beliefs for themselves. 

‘I had many problems with the Qur’an, but even more so with how many people interpreted it to impact wider society. The impact on women, LGBT people, and anyone who was considered not to be devout enough,’ she said. She felt it was an unfair and controlling religion, and that it didn’t give people the freedom to flourish or find joy in life.

She came to the UK from Bangladesh to study at university. There she could hang out with people her own age and have ‘secret’ conversations with Islamic Society friends who she suspected, like her, were only religious to appease their families.

Death threats and a forced marriage

Leaving a strict and controlling religion usually means leaving your family, and to begin a new life. Sharmin knew she had to do it. Her family then sent death threats and cut off her only financial support. Her student visa was cancelled.

In desperation, Sharmin went to a domestic abuse charity for Muslim women, pretending she was fleeing a forced marriage. In a way she was; her family had been making plans to find a husband for her. Terrified of what her life will be like if she is sent home to her fundamentalist relatives, Sharmin is hiding from her family, in fear of her life. She wants to stay in the UK and has started her asylum claim.

She got in touch via our new Faith to Faithless helpline, launched earlier this year. Our Faith to Faithless work has supported around 90 asylum seekers and hundreds of others through a variety of services including a dedicated and specialist helpline for people like Sharmin. 

Sharmin is in a better place now, and moving ahead with her new life.

You can support our work by donating now.

*Sharmin’s name, and some specific details from her story, have been changed in order to protect her identity. Where details have had to be changed, we have drawn from similar cases from other Faith to Faithless service users