Islamic militants wielding machetes attacked authors Rafida Bonya Ahmed and Avijit Roy in February 2015 as they left a book fair in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The attack killed Roy, Ahmed’s husband, and left Ahmed with wounds to her head and hands. She says Roy was targeted for his writings, including a book that opposed violence carried out in the name of religion.
“There are people with so many different kinds of faith, and there are people without faith,” says Ahmed, who — like her late husband — is Bangladeshi American. “Teaching the next generation to have that awareness and the respect for each other is very, very important.”
This video is part of an ongoing series documenting the faces of religious persecution. Others include the stories of Pastor Andrew Brunson, Jewher Ilham and Dabrina Bet-Tamraz.
