Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- The message the brother and sister read aloud is one addressed to a missing father: 9-year-old Najwa and 8-year-old Tirad reciting the words in unison, "Our mother's starting to worry about you." 

Their mom, Ensaf Haidar, is indeed worried, but she's also pained. She knows how much her children yearn to see their dad, but she just doesn't know what to tell them. 

How can she begin to explain that their dad has languished in a Saudi prison for almost a year? How can she expose her kids to a brutal reality she feels they're not ready to face? 

"They're always asking me, 'When is Dad coming home?' " Haidar said. "Telling me, 'Mom, I miss Dad so much.' " 

Haidar struggles with the dilemma every day. 

"It often feels like the world is against me," she said. "When I see how the children are deprived of their father, this is what bothers me the most." 

Her three children, including 5-year-old Myriam, think their father's just delayed by work. But Raif Badawi, 30, has been imprisoned since being arrested in June. He is accused of, among other things, breaking Sharia law and starting a website that infringed on religious values. 

According to Haidar, her husband just wanted to encourage discussion about religion in his homeland. But starting a liberal Internet forum in conservative Saudi Arabia can be a dangerous pursuit. 

"No one wanted to take his case," said Waleed Abualkhair, Badawi's attorney. "Because they believed that anyone who'd take this kind of case, that means he destroys his (own) reputation. But I don't believe in that. I believe that everyone has his right to have a lawyer. And I believe that Raif is innocent." 
For over a year?
languished in a Saudi prison for almost a year