Islam forced her into an arranged marriage. Now she’s a Christian

Lily Meschi, the director of partner relations at Iran Alive Ministries, came to Christ after growing up Muslim — and surviving an abusive arranged marriage in the United States.

“When I was 18, I was introduced to my dad’s business partner, who was 14 years older than me,” Meschi tells Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable.” “This marriage was arranged for me, and the string attached to it was the business that he was helping my dad to open.”

“I did not like him. I was not attracted to him at all, but from the get-go, he started manipulating me. He exploited me sexually before marriage to seal the deal, so to speak,” Meschi explains. “I was just scarred. I was very hurt after that, but I felt like I needed to be the savior of my family and just keep on going with this, with this arranged marriage, which turned very toxic, very abusive on all fronts.”

Meschi had witnessed other young girls and women be forced into arranged marriages and believed this was simply “the culture” and “something that we do as Iranians and as Muslims.”

“This actually happened a few times, but one time I remember as I was sleeping, he started throttling my neck because he had a dream that I was with another man. He was very jealous, very controlling. I woke up feeling I was being choked,” she tells Stuckey.

“That’s the story of me coming to faith, because the relationship was very toxic, and I was so depressed at age 18,” she continues. “I felt trapped with him because of the way he was behaving, the way he was treating me. He wouldn’t let me go, he would just manipulate me in every which way possible to keep me in this marriage.”

When Meschi started going to college, he would follow her there and peek through the windows of the classroom to see who she was sitting with. When she would get home, he’d monitor her phone to see who she was talking to.

“I was very, very down and depressed and in complete darkness, thinking that I’m trapped in this relationship and there’s no way out,” she explains. “That’s when some of our friends came to visit us out of the blue, and they brought Jesus’ film with them, and they brought Bibles.”

“They were family friends from back when we were in Iran, they had moved to Oklahoma,” she continues. “They had become Christians in Oklahoma, and so they wanted to share the gospel with us.”

That’s when one of the women who watched the film with her said something that would change the course of her life.

“‘Lily, I know you’ve been through a lot. Did you know that when you come to Christ, all your past will be gone, and you will become a new creation in Christ, and everything will become new in him?’” Meschi recalls the woman saying.

“That just struck a chord with me,” she continues, adding, “I didn’t know back then, but I know now that the Holy Spirit was speaking through her because that was the very thing I needed to hear.”

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