No Longer a Slave: The Story of Zakie

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. From facing rejection by her community and family to fleeing the Taliban with a newborn baby and a wounded husband, Zakie’s journey is a stark reminder of the high cost of choosing to follow Christ. Yet, it is also a testament to an unrelenting hope that never abandons.

Today, though she is far from home, Zakie’s faith, that survived intense persecution, is ministering to other women just like her, building God's Kingdom through one woman at a time.
 

A Life of Fear

For most of her life, Zakie* believed that God was primarily a terrifying scorekeeper—a sort of cosmic referee waiting for His creations to make a mistake so He could cast them into hell. She did her best to be a faithful Muslim; but she lived with the weight of trying to follow a God who would condemn her on a whim.

And as a woman, 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.”


 

New life, new freedom

As she neared the completion of high school, she was given in marriage to a Muslim man who treated her poorly. But after she got married, her husband began to change. His anger vanished. He began to show affection. He forgave.

It was all because he had found Jesus. 

And soon, so did Zakie. “When I saw the changes in my husband’s life, I also came to faith,” Zakie says. 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.

Conversion opened a completely new experience for Zakie. She had heard of Christians, mostly that they were infidels, but she never imagined she would become one. She began experiencing true freedom and peace. Her interactions with God were no longer about fear, but about an intimate relationship.

But their life in Afghanistan meant they were at risk. 

Zakie's husband sharing from the Bible
 

Marked as infidels

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 deep. Even the children in Zakie’s village looked at her with disgust.

  “One day when I was coming home, a boy [of] maybe 12 or 14 years old, had a bottle of soda in his hand and he emptied it on me [from the top floor] and ran away,” Zakie says. “I came home very upset. I asked God, ‘Lord, what wrong thing have I done that everyone in the society rejects me?’”

She was also excluded from family gatherings. Even when a relative died, she was prohibited from attending the funeral.

Zakie felt the sting of the hurt, but when she sat down to pray, she always found the strength to forgive them and love them.

 Zakie's family worshipping together in a foreign land
 

The 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.

“They took my husband twice, tortured him, and we even thought they had killed him,” Zakie says. “They wanted to eliminate us. They wanted to kill us.”  

Eventually, just before the Taliban came back into power in August 2021, her husband was shot. He survived, but the family knew they had to leave Afghanistan. “We took my husband to the hospital, but we were very scared, and that same night we fled from Afghanistan.”

  They went to Central Asia and now live as refugees where Zakie began a ministry with other Afghan women. Her heart remains with the women of her homeland.

“I do discipleship with women, because there are women who have 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.


 

Holding on to Hope

“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 an 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.”

Open Doors partners in Central Asia are supporting Zakie to continue her ministry among Afghan refugee women. There are others like Zakie who have a calling and a passion for serving women and offering them hope. Open Doors’ support through training, literature, and practical help enables these women to fulfil their calling to strengthen women and build the Kingdom of God among Afghans.

*Name changed for security reasons