From Zero to Hero, from Victim to Victor, from Sudan to Rome and finally New Hampshire, US was the look on Meriam Ibrahim's face as she arrived with her family her family on July 31st to start a new life.
Ibrahim is the Sudanese woman charged with apostasy and sentenced to death for refusing to recant her Christian faith.
Her father was Muslim and her mother was a Christian. In 2011, she married a Christian from southern Sudan, Daniel Wani. Since children in Sudan must follow their father's religion by law, Meriam was charged for breaking the law of Muslim women prohibited from marrying non-Muslims. She was jailed and bore her daughter in chains in prison.
With international pressure, the highest court in Sudan overturned her death sentence in June and Meriam was released after her 18 months ordeal. She and her family were arrested at the Sudan airport as they tried to flee. They took took refuge at the US embassy in Khartoum until the Italian government sent a plane to pick them to Italy where she met Pope Francis.
With international pressure, the highest court in Sudan overturned her death sentence in June and Meriam was released after her 18 months ordeal. She and her family were arrested at the Sudan airport as they tried to flee. They took took refuge at the US embassy in Khartoum until the Italian government sent a plane to pick them to Italy where she met Pope Francis.
The Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, was at the airport to welcome Ibrahim as a "world freedom fighter." He also said people would remember Ibrahim along “with others who stood up so we could be free”. He compared her to Rosa Parks, who became a symbol of the US civil rights movement when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, touching off a bus boycott.
Many supporters cheered them on as the family walked out of the airport. Fighting the tears of gratitude streaming down his face, her husband, Daniel Wani, thanked their supporters for their outpour of love.
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