SAT-7’s media training workshops highlight the importance of equipping the next generation...
“I loved someone, and he loved me very much,” says Nawal. “But his father intervened and decided to marry him to his friend’s daughter. He couldn’t refuse. But we still love each other…”
Living in Egypt after fleeing war in Sudan, Nawal was later married herself. But the bond with her first love endured, forcing her to wrestle daily with what faithfulness meant in every sense of the word.
It’s a common thread among viewers who contact SAT-7 for help with their relationships. Those who reach out to our Viewer Support teams for advice are not asking how to achieve a perfect marriage. They are asking something far more fundamental: how to make wise choices, protect their families, and follow Christ within deeply constrained circumstances.
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), stories like Nawal’s are not unusual. Love and marriage are often shaped less by romance than by family obligation, economic vulnerability, conflict, and survival.
She was unable to refuse a proposal from another suitor after the man she loved was also forced into an unwanted marriage: “My circumstances didn’t allow me,” Nawal said. She married the man but said, “There is no understanding or even a feeling of love at all.”
Faithfulness was a struggle for Nawal, and in desperation, she contacted SAT-7 ARABIC through the Him & Her Facebook page. The Viewer Support team did not respond with judgment or quick answers. Instead, they stayed with Nawal: listening, asking questions, and helping her to reflect on her past, her present marriage, and the emotional changes brought about by displacement and life in Cairo.
The support she received was practical as well as pastoral. The Viewer Support team spoke with her at length, sharing a video on “Meeting Emotional Needs” from the My Mirror program. Watching it, Nawal said, was “very encouraging.”
“A happy marriage is both natural and difficult,” she admits. “I learned that I need to take a positive step toward correcting the concept of this relationship. We must live according to God’s Word… I spoke to my husband, apologized to him, and asked him to pray with me for our lives.”
As Nawal chose the path of faithfulness in a challenging and unchosen situation, SAT-7 walked with her through prayer, advice, and emotional support.
While many marriages in the MENA are loving and mutual, SAT-7 also hears regularly from women and girls whose relationships are shaped by proposals that cannot be refused and expectations too costly to resist.
In Türkiye, Melek describes the relentless social burden to marry against her will: “They’re pressuring me, trying to convince me I need to get married. I am trying to pray to God, but I can’t always feel my prayers being answered.”
Melek’s experience reflects a broader pattern across the region that affects many younger women and girls. According to UNICEF, 700,000 girls are forced into child marriage in the MENA region each year.1
The highest official numbers are in Sudan and Yemen. But Afghan teenager Armita sees the same thing happening in her country. “Girls like me who have not married yet are being forced into marriages in Afghanistan, and this is very, very painful for all of us,” she said.
Many of these situations and issues are deeply entrenched, and there are no quick fixes. But the stories highlight why SAT-7’s support for viewers in difficult circumstances and its programming on marriage and relationships are so crucial.
SAT-7 ARABIC’s Gender Equality and FoRB project is tackling various issues that affect women’s rights and freedoms, working to shift narratives and create safer environments, including for those affected by gender-based violence.
Programs such as The Art of Becoming Us on SAT-7 PARS help Persian viewers to rethink what a Christ-centered relationship looks like in practice, addressing issues such as communication, emotional wounds, family pressures, and marital crises.
On SAT-7 TÜRK, programs including Homemade, Parents Are Asking, and Let’s Talk About This open up practical, values-led conversations that strengthen family life and model healthier relationship dynamics.
Through safe and Biblically informed conversations, SAT-7 helps viewers re-imagine what love, covenant, dignity, and mutual respect can be, while programming challenges harmful cultural norms and presents a positive Christian vision for marriage and families.
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In 2024, at least 81% of your gift went directly to fund programs building up women, children, and families across the Middle East.
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