Father of female Christian convert in Uganda tortures daughter, forces her to drink mosquito repellent

A 34-year old female Muslim in Eastern Ugandan, East Africa, has been reportedly beaten and forced to take mosquito repellent by her father for dumping Islam and marrying a Christian, Morning Star News has reported quoting sources.

Hajira Namusobya had arrived her family house in Pallisa on July 31, unaware that her family had gotten wind of her conversion to Christianity and had married a Christian after divorcing her Muslim husband.

She recounted that after dinner, her father, Al-haji Shafiki Pande, called her for a family meeting and asked her about her new husband.

“When I reached Pallisa, I was welcomed by my parents, not knowing that my parents were angry about me for leaving a Muslim and getting married to a Christian man,” she said.

“I told him everything, how I left the furious husband who almost took away my life and got married to a Christian man who is friendly and treats me as a wife.

“My dad in a loud voice replied that that is impossible and it’s blasphemous to leave a Muslim for a Christian man, more so you are a daughter of a Haji.”

She said her father slapped her when she turned down his request to return to her former husband and renounce Christianity.

“He slapped me and brought out his secret stick and Doom mosquito repellent and beat me badly, then forced me to take mosquito Doom. It was too terrible.”

Hajira said as she cried out due to the beating, a neighbour who she described as a moderate Muslim, came to their house to rescue her and took her to the hospital nearby.

“He also threatened to sue my dad for the attempted murder. My dad disappeared upon hearing this and is nowhere to be seen to date,” Hajira, who was unconscious for three days, said.

Speaking about her former husband who reside in Kawangasi village, Butebo District, Hajira, a mother of four, said he nearly killed her with torture, apart from beating her every week.

She said, “I tried to commit suicide by hanging myself with rope, but I failed because my furious husband was following and monitoring my actions.”

Hajira said she had requested her father to return the bride price to her former husband but that he refused.

She said as the beatings became unbearable, she met a female Christian evangelist in Nakalole village, Mbale District, who asked her to pray to Jesus Christ for help.

She said it was the unnamed evangelist who preaches in the church she attends that led her to put her faith in Christ on February 20 after which she divorced her husband who insisted on custody of their children whose ages she put at 13,11, nine and six.

Hajira, who said she was pained by the decision of her husband to take the children, said she met he Christian husband at a hotel in Iganga town where she got a job as a waitress.

Muslims, mostly found in eastern Uganda, are about 12 per cent of the population of the East African country.