Leyla is a loving mother and wife in her forties who grew up in a family that still practices radical Islam. After getting married, her husband became a catalyst for her acceptance of Christ and becoming a believer. Christ is a part of her daily life, but initially, she needed to keep this hidden from her family. They eventually found out, which was the beginning of some tough times in her life.

Leyla’s father learned about her husband’s faith during a visit from out of the city and confronted his daughter. Without giving her a choice, he took her back home with him and told her she was not allowed to see her husband and would divorce him. She compares this to being a hostage with her children, “I was so scared that I couldn’t say anything. I was just praying to the Lord. To help us overcome these problems. I spent three weeks like a nightmare at my father’s house.”

Leyla’s husband, Murat, had to stay away from his wife and children during this time. Leyla and her husband have a loving family, but while separated, they felt their souls were wounded living with the fear, pressure, and uncertainty of the situation. Murat made the decision to speak to his father-in-law, but this frightened Leyla because of the radical Islamic beliefs that she knew could drive her father to harm or even kill her husband. This is all because he chose to leave their religion and become a Christian, which means that he “lost” the right to be her husband and father to her children; in the eyes of her family, he was contaminated. Despite all these risks, he went home where no one spoke to him or ate at the same table with him as it was haram, according to Islam.

Murat wanted his wife and children home and was able to meet with his father-in-law and tell him how he came to know Christ and how his life was changed. He declared he would not give up on Christ, but he would also not give up on his family.

Leyla expresses what happened between her father and her husband as follows; “Thank God the Lord heard my pleas. My father agreed to this on one condition. My husband would never take my children and me to church. My father told my husband that if he heard such a thing, he would sacrifice him with one bullet. Even that was a great miracle for us. Because I knew my father very well. I knew I would never come home again. My husband also accepted my father’s request, seeing how strict my family was and realizing they would no longer give us peace in this country. My husband’s aim was primarily to take me and my children with him. Because if we had stayed with my family, we would never have been able to get together. My children would never see their father again. And they would brand my children as ‘children of the infidel’. If I had stayed with my family, they would have married me to someone else after I divorced my husband. This is unfortunately a common occurrence in our culture. This was going to be a very difficult and heavy situation for me.”