International (MNN) — To be role models of love and respect. To forgive. To be social together. These are lessons Ruba Rihani hopes to relay to women across the Arab world. As founder and manager of Arab Women Today Ministry (AWT), Rihani says one lesson tops the others: Love one another as Jesus Christ loves you.
“I always bring the gospel into our conversation,” she says. “This is in real life – in the field, in our daily life.”
Rihani believes women can play a pivotal role in modeling and promoting peace. Those raising children have an especially important charge: to bring them up on a diet of forgiveness instead of revenge. Though change is incremental and often slow-moving, Rihani and her team are seeing hearts transformed through their ministry. She says she has heard women stand and declare:
“From now on, I will not send my children to fight the enemy – to fight the people who killed my husband or my son or my daughter – I will love everyone and forgive everyone.”
While a culture of peace begins in homes, it continues in the political and economic sphere as a defense of women’s rights. In the Arab world, Rihani says, many women have the potential to lead but are deprived of positions because of their gender. AWT is involved with campaigns and lobbying surrounding this issue. In regions where women’s rights are trampled, Rihani says it is important to speak the language of liberty.
“Represent their freedom. Write about their life. Write about why they deserve to be treated better than what they are now. Write about their rights to live and be educated.”
Change takes time, but Rihani is optimistic, especially with the younger generation’s adaptation to social media.
“Because of globalization, it opened the eyes of the new generation and the younger people to see something different and listen to a different perspective,” she says.
Many young people are realizing there is a world outside Islam. Pray that they would come to Christ.
Pray also for the ministry of AWT: that Rihani and her partners would be sustained during geopolitical and spiritual turmoil and that the Lord will provide opportunities for Christian minorities in Arab communities to build bridges with their Islamic neighbors.
Images in this article courtesy of Pexels.
