Christian converts face severe restrictions, discrimination, and attacks.
bottom“We are persecuted, afflicted, and mistreated—but not broken."
– Mijanur Rahman
The 2025 World Watch List reporting period saw significant political turmoil in Bangladesh as violent riots led to the resignation of the prime minister and an increase in extremist attacks on Christians, especially converts.
Volatile times are always a special challenge for religious minorities. Christians belonging to ethnic minorities can experience double persecution: for their ethnicity and their faith. This year, members of the majority-Christian Bawm ethnic group have been killed, and many forced to flee, caught up in a complex conflict between the military and rival armed groups.
In August 2024, protests largely started by student groups angry about job quota systems saw violence spill over and target Christians. Radical groups used the chaos to attack Christian communities, especially converts. Homes were burned (including house churches) and some believers were driven underground. It was simply one more reminder that life as a Christian in Bangladesh can be fraught with danger.
Fearing attack from extremists, converts often gather in small house churches or secret groups. Churches that evangelise among the Muslim majority face persecution, but even traditional churches such as the Roman Catholic Church may experience attacks or threats made to their clergy.
Converts—mostly from Islam, but also from Hinduism, Buddhism, or traditional religions—are most at risk of persecution in Bangladesh. While conversions are legal at state level, converts can come under heavy pressure and even violence from their local community. In addition, Christians belonging to ethnic or refugee communities can be subject to significant violence.
The persecution of Christian women is often hidden behind marriages and family life. But for men, it can be more public. They can be beaten, tortured, and threatened.
– That God protects Christians in Bangladesh and brings healing to victims of attacks.
– For those impacted by the 2024 cyclone to be restored and find hope as they recover.
– For Bangladeshi believers who risk everything to be salt and light.
Open Doors works through partners in Bangladesh to provide persecuted preparedness training, discipleship, Bibles and other Christian literature, literacy programs, socio-economic empowerment, and emergency and immediate aid to victims of persecution.
