The Heroic Story of Sad Um Haleema

''People in this village are rejecting  me because I was impregnated by a Boko Haram. Some will be happy to have me dead. I will not abort my baby .'' Um Haleema

Um Haleema,  a 16-year-old victim of Boko Haram, forced into marriage and impregnated by the insurgents  has  said  she would  keep  the pregnancy

because  her  unborn  baby  deserves  to live. 
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 Boko Haram burned and ransacked her  village and that during her captivity, she was forced to watch men, women and children slaughtered.

“I  tried to escape, along with three of her friends but caught in the act. The guards returned us and beat us,”  she told CNN in an interview.

She recalled that she arrived home to discover that her father had been killed by the same BokoHaram insurgents who had held her captive for almost a year just as she had become pregnant.   Now seven months pregnant, the former Boko Haram abductee, says she lives daily with the fear of stigmatization by the men in her community.

A leader of the vigilante group in Haleema's community denied knowing that she was pregnant but he however stated that the tradition in their community forbids the children of Boko Haram members living with them

"I am not  aware of any woman in this village who was impregnated by them. If any woman is found to be pregnant, in  our  tradition, the pregnancy  is considered Haram (unlawful), hence we cannot accept them wholeheartedly . One girl  died after  she attempted an abortion, losing both the mother and the baby. The girl was the only child to her mother, so that scared us. If God wishes, she will give birth safely. Life is in the hands of God alone." He said .

In Muslimcommunities, pregnancy outside of marriage is often seen as illegitimate, unless the mother can prove it was against her will.