00:00 Once you're baptised, they put you in your place and now you have to behave and be a good Jehovah's Witness.
00:05 Otherwise, you'll get kicked out.
00:07 My name is Eva. I'm originally from Latvia.
00:14 I was recruited as one of Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of 14 and a half.
00:19 And then 22 years later, I left.
00:22 Probably age 7 or 8, when I was first told by somebody, "Do you know there's a God?"
00:29 I'm like, "Wow."
00:31 I think there was sort of a euphoria when everything opened up.
00:37 I've been banned.
00:39 People flock to churches. People were interested in...
00:43 Even when these groups would knock on the door or give out the literature.
00:48 It was just, "Would you like a Bible study?"
00:51 And I was 14 and a half and we thought, "Well, why not?"
00:56 I started studying the Bible with Witnesses in March 1996.
01:01 There was this sense that Armageddon is coming any time soon.
01:06 Once you're baptised, they put you in your place and now you have to behave and be a good Jehovah's Witness.
01:12 Otherwise, you'll get kicked out and nobody will ever talk to you again.
01:16 I didn't really have any family apart from my mum, as my dad died when I was 10.
01:23 So you have to kind of make friends among Jehovah's Witnesses.
01:28 I was still at school, so there were people I would talk to.
01:32 When you told them you were one of Jehovah's Witnesses, they were terrified.
01:35 And in that first year, I got baptised.
01:39 A 17-year-old would refuse blood and the parents obviously refused it.
01:44 And she died because they couldn't give her a life-saving treatment.
01:49 And I think after that happened, I didn't really advertise I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses at school
01:57 because it was making my life difficult.
02:01 I just sort of kept myself to myself.
02:03 I was told that Jehovah's Witnesses are not supposed to go out or marry anyone who's not a Jehovah's Witness.
02:11 And if you do, it's classed as disobedience.
02:14 You can't really choose who you fall in love with.
02:18 So me and their grandson, we sort of started seeing each other secretly.
02:25 I actually got engaged pretty quick.
02:29 And then it came out and I had people writing nasty letters to me from the English congregation in Ripley.
02:38 And I got pulled up by the elders in Riga.
02:40 It was like an interrogation for about two hours.
02:45 They wanted to know every single detail.
02:47 Sat me down and put one of their videos on about Jehovah's Witnesses should not make friends with those who are not Jehovah's Witnesses
02:56 and definitely not date them.
02:57 It wasn't really their place.
02:59 It's just something in me just did not want to go along with it.
03:03 And I just said, "Well, I'm going to think about it."
03:07 And obviously people stopped talking to me and avoided me because now I had a bad reputation
03:13 for dating somebody who wasn't a Jehovah's Witness.
03:16 I want my children to have the freedom to do whatever they want.
03:20 If they want to go to university, they go to university.
03:24 And that was another reason I just wanted them out of my life so that they can have a future.
03:33 I'm able to explore things in life that I couldn't before.
03:37 And for myself and my children, we really love our life now.
03:43 I know I'm 42, but it's not too late to go back to university.
03:48 You know, something that I could have done when I was 18.
03:52 Do your research, take your time, do not let anybody pressure you,
03:58 and decide what's best for you, regardless of what people say.
04:04 [ Music ]
Comments