CHRISTIAN TODAY/ Kristian Goropevsek –
Christians today remain one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world with more than 200 million believers facing ‘high levels of persecution’ by authoritarian governments or followers of other religions – and simply because they identify as followers of Jesus Christ. But persecution takes on many forms and is not experienced by everyone in the same way.
As part of a new research approach, Open Doors International began tracking differences in how Christian men and women experience persecution. Their findings, which are based on data collected from dozens of countries, reveal that persecution is not gender-blind but rather gender-specific, with different “pressure points” being applied to men and women in order to increase the effectiveness.
Men, who are typically the main breadwinners for the family in countries where persecution is common, are more prone to experience economic pressure that threatens the family’s livelihood, while women, whose social status is often measured by their perceived sexual purity, are more likely to face sexual harassment or rape as a form of persecution. Continue reading…
