US told to ‘demand accountability’ for religious freedom violations in Iran talks 11 April 2025 News The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has called on the US government to “demand accountability for Iran’s religious freedom violations” in tomorrow’s planned discussions between the two nations in Oman. The independent, bipartisan group noted that Iran’s “egregious” religious-freedom violations had caused “hundreds” – including Christian converts – to flee the country, and called on the US government to ensure such religious refugees are not sent back to Iran. “Ensuring that religiously persecuted Iranians are protected from the horrors awaiting them if refouled to Iran sends a clear signal that the US government prioritises freedom of religion or belief,” said USCIRF Vice Chair Meir Soloveichik. “Iranians who dissent from the government’s endorsed religious interpretation —particularly converts from Islam—face severe government persecution for both their religious beliefs and for exercising their freedom to change these beliefs,” added USCIRF Chair Stephen Scheck. “The Trump administration must demand Iranian concessions on its systematic targeting of religious minorities, including those at risk of being repatriated, during upcoming talks in Oman.” The commission also reiterated its calls for the permanent reauthorisation of the Lautenberg Amendment, which prioritises the resettlement of Iran’s persecuted religious minorities. “Iran’s egregious persecution of religious minorities has caused hundreds of people to flee the country seeking humanitarian protection based on religious persecution,” USCIRF said. “If sent back to Iran, these individuals face grave danger to their personal safety for exercising their right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including for changing their religion or belief.” USCIRF highlighted the recent reports that a group of Iranian asylum-seekers were sent from the US to Panama, stating that “these individuals may be forcibly returned to Iran, where they are likely to experience persecution, harassment, torture, and prolonged imprisonment”. Article18’s director, Mansour Borji, commented: “We are grateful to USCIRF for highlighting the situation of Iran’s religious refugees – including Christian converts – whose situation is unfortunately dire in many of the third countries in which hundreds continue to wait resettlement. “We call on not only the US government but other nations too to open their doors to genuine converts to Christianity, whose risk of persecution should they be returned to Iran is beyond doubt.”
Iranian-Armenian Christian’s mother dies during ongoing detention 10 April 2025 News The mother of an Iranian-Armenian pastor who has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison for over two months has passed away. Joseph Shahbazian’s mother, who was 79 years old and for whose care Joseph had been primarily responsible, died yesterday at her home in Tehran. The pastor, who previously spent over a year in prison on charges related to his leadership of a house-church, was re-arrested on 6 February for unknown reasons and remains in Evin Prison on extended pre-trial detention. A bail was set for him last month and he has been transferred from Ward 209 of the prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, to the general ward, but he has yet to be released or informed of any official charges. The same is true of fellow Christian and former prisoner of conscience Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who was arrested on the same day as Joseph and suffered a stroke last month after undertaking a hunger strike to protest against the continued persecution of Christians in Iran. Both Christians are in their 60s and Nasser has also been suffering with pain in his teeth, for which he has not been provided with any treatment. Article18’s director, Mansour Borji, commented: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Joseph’s elderly mother, and call on the Iranian authorities to immediately release him to ensure he can be there for her funeral. “Despite their continued claims that ‘no-one is imprisoned for their beliefs’ in Iran, the authorities continue to arrest and detain Christians like Joseph and Nasser for precisely that reason: their Christian faith and the peaceful outworking of that faith, including worshipping together with other Christians and sharing their faith with others, as is their right under the international covenants Iran has signed.”
‘When I was 13, my older brother was murdered on his way back from work’ 9 April 2025 Features An extract from a recent BBC recording from British-Iranian bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani, daughter of the first Persian bishop of Iran and sister of a martyr of the Iranian Church. (Photo: Diocese of Chelmsford) My life experiences have compelled me to reflect deeply on the themes of suffering, death and resurrection. By the time I was born, my father, a Muslim convert, had been ordained and was serving as Bishop of the Anglican Church in Iran. We lived a somewhat curious life, betwixt and between the worlds of Islam and Christianity, Persian and English, east and west. This unusual childhood was what I considered normal. It was all I knew, and for the most part my two worlds of school and wider society on one hand, and home and church life on the other, coexisted peaceably, with some occasional overlap. All that changed as the events leading to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 began to unfold. At school, I began to be ostracised by friends and teachers, and at home the church was coming under increasing pressure. Institutions such as hospitals and various schools were forcibly taken over or closed; church offices and the bishop’s house were ransacked; the church’s financial assets were frozen; one of our clergy was found murdered in his study; my father was briefly imprisoned, before an attack on his life, in which he survived but my mother was injured. The darkest day for us as a family came when I was 13. My older brother, Bahram, was murdered on his way back from work. His car was ambushed and he was shot in the head. Bahram was 24, a gifted young man full of energy and enthusiasm, with so much to offer his country, his life cut short cruelly. My father was out of the country for meetings at the time of Bahram’s death, and although no-one was ever brought to justice, we’ve always understood that my brother was targeted because of his association with the Church and because he was his father’s son. We later learned that he’d been aware of the impending danger, but had refused to flee the country. Today, both Bahram and Reverend Arastoo Sayyah, who was assassinated in his study, are remembered as martyrs of the Church in Iran and are commemorated in the chapel of modern-day martyrs in Canterbury Cathedral. After Bahram’s funeral, knowing it wasn’t safe for my father to return, my mother, eldest sister and I joined him in England, assuming we’d be back home within weeks or months. That wasn’t to be, and arriving here as a refugee, here I still am over 40 years later, now a fully-fledged British citizen. My father continued working as bishop-in-exile until his retirement. He dedicated the remainder of his life to supporting and encouraging Christians still in Iran; working with Iranians in this country; and writing and translating Christian literature in Persian. This is a prayer my father wrote after my brother was killed; he dictated the words to my mother over the telephone, and the prayer was read in the original Persian at Bahram’s funeral in Isfahan: Oh God, we remember not only Bahram, but his murderers. Not because they killed him in the prime of his youth and made our hearts bleed and our tears flow. Not because with this savage act, they have brought further disgrace on the name of our country among the civilised nations of the world. But because, through their crime, we now follow more closely Your footsteps in the way of sacrifice. The terrible fire of this calamity burns up all selfishness and possessiveness in us. Its flame reveals the depth of depravity, meanness, and suspicion; the dimension of hatred, and the measure of sinfulness in human nature. It makes obvious, as never before, our need to trust in Your love, as shown in the Cross of Jesus and his resurrection. Love that makes us free from all hatred towards our persecutor. Love which brings patience, forbearance, courage, loyalty, humility, generosity, and greatness of heart. Love which, more than ever, deepens our trust in God’s final victory and his eternal designs for the Church and for the world. Love which teaches us how to prepare ourselves to face our own day of death. Oh God, Bahram’s blood has multiplied the fruit of the Spirit in the soil of our souls. So when his murderers stand before you on the Day of Judgment, remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives, and forgive. I’ve lived with this prayer for most of my life, but it’s only relatively recently that I’ve properly pondered it, trying to appreciate and understand more deeply something of my father’s faith and emotions as he wrote it. In doing so, it has struck me forcibly that although the words “hope” and “fear” are never used, the prayer is infused with the idea of hope and freedom from fear. The prayer defines forgiveness as the thing that allows us to trust more completely. Forgiveness frees us from hatred; helps us to love more completely; and releases us from the fear of our own death. I wish now that I’d quizzed my father more about this prayer, but it seems to me that, mingled with the pain, it is brimming with positivity. What he seemed to be saying was that you need pain and suffering to fully comprehend the meaning of hope, and to be free of fear; and the gateway from suffering to hope and fearlessness, from death to new life, is forgiveness. You have to experience anxiety, pain, suffering, hopelessness to truly know what hope is. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti, my brother, is one of those commemorated in the chapel of modern-day martyrs at the east end of Canterbury Cathedral. Tertullian famously said: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Certainly in Iran, the experience has been that, against all odds, the tiny Church continues to survive. I remember with gratitude the life of Bahram and so many others who have paid a high price for their faithfulness, and, as I give thanks, I look ahead with hope and expectation that we can be a people who speak out against injustice and suffering at the hands of the powerful; that we can live without fear, knowing that resurrection is stronger than death, that love is stronger than hate. You can listen to the full recording on the BBC website, available for the next 25 days.
Iran rapporteur and fact-finding mission mandates renewed 3 April 2025 News The mandates of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran and independent fact-finding mission (FFM) have both been renewed by the Human Rights Council. The mandates were voted through today by 24 votes in favour to eight against, with 15 abstentions. The representative of Iceland, which presented the bill, said that while “the Iranian authorities may not be in favour of this resolution, the people of Iran are. They want accountability; they want to have their voices heard.” The representatives of Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil, the Netherlands and Costa Rica gave statements in support of the resolution, while the delegations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Cuba, China and Indonesia spoke in opposition. The recorded vote on 3 April Article18 had joined over 40 rights groups and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in calling for the renewal of both mandates in a joint letter sent to UN member states last month. In the letter, we said that Special Rapporteur Mai Sato’s mandate and “a complementary international independent investigative mechanism” were both essential in “combating systematic impunity for recent and ongoing violations”, including the “systematic discrimination and violence” against religious or belief minorities. The members of the FFM said last month that they had only “scratched the surface” in “exposing the structural and institutional discrimination” against religious minorities in Iran, and needed more time to investigate these and other rights violations. The FFM’s Viviana Krsticevic said “more investigations into the unaddressed root causes [of religious discrimination were] required”, and that this was “one of the reasons” the FFM was recommending a renewal of its mandate, “as continued scrutiny is essential”. The head of the FFM, Sara Hossain, added that “the enforcement of discriminatory laws and policies not only enables repression of women and girls” – the focus of the FFM’s mission, in the wake of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini – “but also other groups on grounds of ethnicity, religion and or political belief”. “The suppression of these all equally warrant this Council’s attention,” she said. “For this reason … we recommend that the council consider a follow-up body that could continue to investigate the serious human rights concerns already identified and also accompany accountability efforts.” “In this way,” she said, the Human Rights Council could “play a vital role in supporting Iranians right to truth, justice and reparations, and crucially, to prevent further cycles of violence”. Ms Krsticevic also called for member states to offer “continued support” to “victims and survivors of persecution” by “supporting them in host countries [through] asylum, humanitarian visas and other support”. Meanwhile, Dr Sato’s first report to the council highlighted once again how Christian converts are among the groups facing “troubling” religious discrimination in Iran.
Brothers sentenced to four years in prison, fined and exiled 31 March 2025 News Mansour Mardani-Kharaji (left) and his brother Mahmoud. Two brothers who were arrested at a Christmas gathering over three years ago have both been sentenced to four years in prison, fined, and exiled from their home province for two years after their release. Christian converts Mahmoud Mardani-Kharaji, 56, and his brother Mansour, who will turn 50 in April, were convicted under the amended Article 500 of the penal code, which criminalises “deviant propaganda activities contrary to the holy religion of Islam”. On top of the prison sentences, the brothers were fined 150 million tomans each (around $1,500), banned from membership of any groups for five years after their release, and told they must spend the first two of those years outside the bounds of their home province of Isfahan. Two other Christians who were arrested alongside the brothers and who cannot be named were also present at the trial in January and previous court hearing in November 2024, but the charges against them were dropped. The reason the charges were dropped remains unclear, but Christian converts are routinely pressured to recant their faith or sign commitments to refrain from any further involvement in Christian activities. It has been three years since Article18 first reported on the brothers’ arrest, after which they remained missing for over a month. Their arrest was carried out by plainclothes intelligence agents, who showed no warrant nor explained which security force they represented, when they raided the gathering on 22 December 2021 in Fooladshahr, a small city just outside Isfahan. Iranian Christian website Mohabat News, which first reported the arrest, explained to Article18 at the time that the brothers’ family members, not knowing which agency had been responsible for the arrest, had been threatened and mocked by the officials they had spoken to, as they anxiously sought information about them.
Denying prisoners religious books, instruction violates rights – UN rapporteur 28 March 2025 Analysis Dr Ghanea spoke at an event co-hosted by Article18 at the UN in Geneva in January. Providing detainees with access to their holy books and religious instruction should be considered among the “minimum standards” that States must respect in order not to violate their rights, according to the UN’s Special Rapporteur (SR) on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). “Places of deprivation of liberty must allow individuals to participate in spiritual and religious activities, to receive education, including religious instruction, to keep religious books [and] to receive visits from spiritual or religious representatives,” says Nazila Ghanea in her latest report, which was presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva earlier this month. The report, which focuses on the “nexus” between the rights to FoRB and to protection from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, adds that prisoners must “equally not to be forced to take part in religious practices nor receive visits from religious representatives not aligned with their beliefs”. The SR references a case at the European Court of Human Rights, which found that “a prisoner’s inability to participate in religious services and being denied visits from a priest amounted to a violation of [FoRB]”. In her recommendations, she calls on States to ensure that detainees can “satisfy the needs of their religious and spiritual life, in particular by attending the services or meetings provided or by conducting their own services, and have possession of the necessary books or items of religious observance and instruction”. She adds that, “where a detention facility contains sufficient numbers of persons of a given religion … qualified representatives of that religion [should] be allowed to hold regular services and to pay pastoral visits in private to detainees at their request. “Everyone should have the right to receive visits from a qualified representative of the religion of their choice, as well as the right not to participate in religious services and freely to decline religious education, counselling or indoctrination.” Christian prisoners of conscience in Iran are routinely denied access to the Bible, as former prisoner Amin Afshar-Naderi testified at the UN in January. “While in prison, I requested a Bible, explaining that I am a Christian and I had the right to access it,” he explained, but “while the Quran was readily available to all prisoners, my repeated request for a Bible was denied for a long time, until eventually an intelligence officer mockingly told me: ‘You’re foolish to make such a demand! We brought you here because of the Bible, and now you want us to give you one?’” Meanwhile, Christian converts are often sent for religious “re-education” sessions with Islamic clerics. Nima Rezaei testified in his Witness Statement that he and a dozen other Christians were ordered by the Ministry of Intelligence to attend a meeting with an Islamic theologian, who “spoke to us for about two hours … [and] when he finished explaining things about Islam, he said: ‘If you have any questions, I am at your service.’ He thought that our problem was that we didn’t know enough about Islam, and that’s why we had become Christians, and he wanted to convince us to return to Islam.” Coercion the ‘key link’ Such coercion is the “key link” between the rights to FoRB and protection from torture and ill-treatment, says Dr Ghanea’s report. “Not all forms of coercion reach the threshold of torture or ill-treatment, but all forms of torture inflicted on persons on the grounds of their religion or belief constitute coercion,” she notes. “In other words, when torture or ill-treatment is committed against someone because of their religion or belief, both rights are violated.” Coercion can be manifested “physically or psychologically”, but as it is “easier to demonstrate evidence of physical coercion than psychological coercion … the latter has oftentimes been overlooked”. Christian prisoners of conscience in Iran experience psychological torture more frequently than physical torture – though both have been reported – and Dr Ghanea says a consideration of the impact of both is necessary to “recognize the severity of the pain inflicted”. And coercion not only includes pressure to “recant [one’s] religion or to convert” but also policies or practices that have the same intention or effect, such as “restricting access to education, medical care [or] employment”, she says. Dr Ghanea’s report references a ruling of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which found violations of both the rights to FoRB and prohibition of torture in a case where non-Muslims were “coerced to change their beliefs through denial of work, food aid and education … considerably restrict[ing] their ability to practice freely the religion to which they subscribe”. Article18 has reported on numerous occasions how Christians have been denied access to medical care in prison, such as in the recent case of Amir-Ali Minaei, who was beaten after asking to be sent for treatment, as well as to employment and education following imprisonment. Burial rights Rev Hossein Soodmand was buried in a place called “accursed”, without his family’s knowledge, and his grave was later demolished. One “insidious” form of coercion “often targeted at members of religious minorities”, Dr Ghanea’s report says, is “disrespect for burial rituals and destroying cemeteries”. “While freedom of religion or belief protects both rituals and places of rest for the dead, it does not fully capture the mental distress that individuals face when these are violated,” she says, adding that “a broader understanding of the connection between freedom of religion and the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment can provide a more holistic response to such violations”. The threshold of ill-treatment may have been reached, she says, when family members “did not receive the bodies of loved ones promptly in order to be able to organize funerals in line with religious rites”, family members were “prevented from carrying out funerals in line with their beliefs”, or when there had been “no advance warning of executions” and bodies were not returned to bereaved family members. She references members of the Baha’i faith in Iran being “prevented from burying their dead in available cemetery land and instead being forced to bury their dead on top of a mass grave site”. Iranian Christians have also suffered from similar ill-treatment, as in the case of Rev Hossein Soodmand, who after his execution for “apostasy” was buried in an “accursed place”, without his family’s knowledge, and whose grave was later demolished. Similar ill-treatment was also seen in the case of Mahvash Mahmoudian, wife of Esmail Maghrebinezhad, who testified in his Witness Statement that although the Anglican bishop of Iran had requested that she be buried in the local Christian cemetery, “on the day of the funeral, three agents from the Ministry of Intelligence were present as my wife’s body was washed in the Islamic way and placed in a shroud filled with Quranic verses. They prayed over her body, and after an Islamic ceremony was held by the caretakers of the Shiraz cemetery and the three agents, she was buried in the Muslim cemetery.” ‘Far more needs to be done’ The Special Rapporteur calls it “highly surprising” that “so few” legal cases related to the rights of FoRB and prohibition of ill-treatment have been “entertained by international bodies, given the number of violations reported by civil society organizations and the number of allegation letters received under [her] mandate”. “This discrepancy demonstrates the lack of information available to persons deprived of liberty concerning their rights, and that religion or belief is not taken seriously by such institutions,” she says, adding: “Far more needs to be done to address such violations and develop effective preventive measures to end impunity.” The “ulimate goal” of Dr Ghanea’s report, she says, is to “honour the victims of such violations by recommending a framework that will minimize the chances of repeated violations taking place again”. A “broader understanding” of the connection between the two rights “can provide a more holistic response to such violations”, she concludes.
US Commission on International Religious Freedom 2025 annual report 26 March 2025 Reports The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on the US government to ensure that religious refugees from Iran are always accepted, as it recommended once again that Iran be re-designated a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”. In its latest annual report, released yesterday, the independent, bipartisan commission referenced the cases of several Christians who were arrested, sentenced or imprisoned on account of their faith last year, including Anooshavan Avedian, Yasser Akbari, Hakop Gochumyan, Mina Khajavi, Laleh Saati, and Matthias Ali-Haghnejad. The report also noted the plight of refugees, including Iranian Christians, in Turkey, and called on the US government to “permanently reauthorise” the Lautenberg Amendment, which aids persecuted Iranian religious minorities seeking refugee status in the United States. USCIRF noted that Iranian Christian refugees in Turkey have faced the threat of deportation, with Turkish authorities “reportedly denying that deportation to Iran would pose a threat to their safety”. It also noted the long waits for third-country resettlement some refugees in Turkey have experienced, as well as “restrictions on their internal freedom of movement”. Article18 has reported on the plight of Iranian Christian refugees in Turkey, as well as in other countries such as Georgia and Sweden, and said there is a “critical need” for new resettlement opportunities and sponsorship programmes. USCIRF said religious-freedom conditions in Iran “remained poor” last year, particularly for religious minorities and religious dissidents. It also noted that Iran was had the highest number of reported cases of medical neglect, and the third highest number of documented instances of torture. Article18 has reported on numerous occasions how Christian prisoners have been subjected to psychological and in some instances physical torture, as well as denial of medical care. This month alone, we have reported on the cases of Amir-Ali Minaei, a 31-year-old who was beaten by a prison officer after asking for medical treatment, as well as 63-year-old Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who was sent back from hospital to Evin Prison just two days after suffering a stroke in his solitary-confinement cell. “Authorities subjected prisoners detained on religious grounds to torture and severe punishment, including by denying them medical care,” the report noted. “The government also continued to systematically harass, intimidate, and target religious minorities through its arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, forced closure of businesses, destruction of property, and promotion of online hate speech.” Iran had the third-highest number of individuals on USCIRF’s FoRB Victims List – of documented cases of individuals detained or imprisoned due to their religion or belief – and the commission called for the imposition of targeted sanctions against judges who had presided over FoRB-related cases.
US commission calls for permanent acceptance of Iran’s religious refugees 26 March 2025 News The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on the US government to ensure that religious refugees from Iran are always accepted, as it recommended once again that Iran be re-designated a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”. In its latest annual report, released yesterday, the independent, bipartisan commission referenced the cases of several Christians who were arrested, sentenced or imprisoned on account of their faith last year, including Anooshavan Avedian, Yasser Akbari, Hakop Gochumyan, Mina Khajavi, Laleh Saati, and Matthias Ali-Haghnejad. The report also noted the plight of refugees, including Iranian Christians, in Turkey, and called on the US government to “permanently reauthorise” the Lautenberg Amendment, which aids persecuted Iranian religious minorities seeking refugee status in the United States. USCIRF noted that Iranian Christian refugees in Turkey have faced the threat of deportation, with Turkish authorities “reportedly denying that deportation to Iran would pose a threat to their safety”. It also noted the long waits for third-country resettlement some refugees in Turkey have experienced, as well as “restrictions on their internal freedom of movement”. Article18 has reported on the plight of Iranian Christian refugees in Turkey, as well as in other countries such as Georgia and Sweden, and said there is a “critical need” for new resettlement opportunities and sponsorship programmes. USCIRF said religious-freedom conditions in Iran “remained poor” last year, particularly for religious minorities and religious dissidents. It also noted that Iran was had the highest number of reported cases of medical neglect, and the third highest number of documented instances of torture. Article18 has reported on numerous occasions how Christian prisoners have been subjected to psychological and in some instances physical torture, as well as denial of medical care. This month alone, we have reported on the cases of Amir-Ali Minaei, a 31-year-old who was beaten by a prison officer after asking for medical treatment, as well as 63-year-old Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who was sent back from hospital to Evin Prison just two days after suffering a stroke in his solitary-confinement cell. “Authorities subjected prisoners detained on religious grounds to torture and severe punishment, including by denying them medical care,” the report noted. “The government also continued to systematically harass, intimidate, and target religious minorities through its arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, forced closure of businesses, destruction of property, and promotion of online hate speech.” Iran had the third-highest number of individuals on USCIRF’s FoRB Victims List – of documented cases of individuals detained or imprisoned due to their religion or belief – and the commission called for the imposition of targeted sanctions against judges who had presided over FoRB-related cases.
The suffocation and slow death of the Anglican Church in Iran 25 March 2025 Analysis St Luke’s Church in Isfahan is one of only three remaining active Anglican churches in Iran, but none of which have been permitted to reopen since the Covid-19 pandemic. Two Easters ago, the retiring Anglican archbishop responsible for the ailing diocese of Iran – Cyprus-based Englishman Michael Lewis – received a visit from a handful of his Iranian congregants. “If the Archbishop can’t come to Iran, Iran will come to the Archbishop!” read a Twitter post on the account of the Jerusalem and Middle East Church Association (JMECA), under which the Iranian diocese falls these days, bereft of a bishop of its own. “Over recent years it has been difficult to obtain visas in order to facilitate episcopal visits to the Diocese of Iran, which made the opportunity for five people, both clergy and lay, from Anglican churches in Iran to visit with the Diocese of Cyprus, even sweeter,” explained an article on the JMECA website. “Archbishop Michael had invited them to join him and others for two days so that the Province could, in a setting of trust, express concern, care, and encouragement for the remaining congregations of the Diocese of Iran and be better informed about the realities of daily life… The Iranians were keen that their life and its joys and sorrows should be more widely appreciated.” If the Archbishop can’t come to Iran, Iran will come to the Archbishop!https://t.co/gwo20VIewN#iran #dioceseofiran #dioceseofcyprus #cyprus #synod #pray #prayer #middleeast #anglican@CofEDevon @AnglicanWorld @AnglicanNews @AngliAlliance @Guli_FD @chelmsdio pic.twitter.com/WVi85EYb8h — JMECA (@JMECASecretary) April 25, 2023 The article went on to note that the only three remaining active Anglican churches in Iran – St Luke’s in Isfahan, St Paul’s in Tehran, and St Simon the Zealot’s in Shiraz – “remain closed for formal worship”, having not been permitted to reopen since the pandemic. “Ways forward with government authorities were discussed,” JMECA stated, “as well as episcopal oversight of the diocese”. But two years on, the three churches remain closed – perhaps the only example anywhere in the world of places of worship closed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic remaining off limits. Archbishop Michael retired a month after the Cyprus visit and was replaced by a Palestinian, Hosam Naoum, but Iran’s Anglicans remain both churchless and, in effect, bishop-less, as no visit to Iran by an Anglican leader has been possible since the former Vicar-General of Iran, Rev Albert Walters, was forced to leave his role, and the country, in 2019, after his residence and work permits were not extended. Former glories In effect, the Anglican Church in Iran has therefore found itself bishop-less for six years and church-less for five. And yet the beleaguered diocese has not always been so. Indeed, the translator who attended the Cyprus gathering, Church of England bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani, was a living testament to both the current and former situation of the Church in Iran, having as a young girl been forced to flee the country along with her father, Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, the first native-born Anglican bishop of Iran. Bishop Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, pictured here with his family including a young Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani (centre), was the first Persian Anglican Bishop of Iran. When Bishop Dehqani-Tafti, a convert from an Islamic background, was installed as bishop in 1960, the future of the small but growing Church in Iran seemed bright, exemplified by the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to his church in Isfahan a year later. But everything changed with the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The pastor of the Anglican church in Shiraz, Arastoo Sayyah, was killed just eight days after the arrival of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini heralded the beginning of a new Islamic Republic. And by the end of that year, Bishop Hassan and his family had fled the country after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, and much of the church’s property had been confiscated or repurposed. When the bishop’s only son, Bahram, returned to Iran the following year, he too was murdered. Bishop Hassan continued to lead the Anglican Church in Iran, in exile, for a further decade, before being succeeded by his friend and fellow convert, Iraj Mottahedeh – the second and, to date, last Persian Anglican bishop of Iran. Bleak future The former home of the Anglican Bishop of Iran, where Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani spent her childhood, is now a museum. (Photo: X @Alireza_E_1999) Bishop Mottahedeh was replaced by a Pakistani, Bishop Azad Marshall, but since his retirement in 2016, the Church has been represented only from afar, and with ever decreasing possibilities of engagement. Moreover, since 1979, the Anglican churches of Iran have not been permitted to welcome new members to their churches, so only those who could prove they were already Christians before the revolution have been able to stay in congregations that were once hundreds strong and are now down to a combined membership of less than 100 across the three remaining churches. The dwindling membership of the Anglican Church of Iran still bears the hallmarks of its former glories, with many of the remaining members coming from the blind centres that were set up by missionaries in the 20th century. But with no longer any bishop in the country, nor even visits of foreign-based bishops permitted, no churches open, and no possibility of new members, the future of the Anglican Church in Iran seems bleak. Unless something changes, the membership will surely further dwindle and, eventually, die out, leaving only empty buildings, which, like many others before them, will then be at risk of eventual confiscation and repurposing by the state.
Christian convert suffers stroke after 35-day hunger strike 24 March 2025 News A Christian convert who had been on hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin Prison for 35 days to protest against the continued persecution of Christians in Iran has suffered a stroke. Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who is 63 years old and previously spent nearly five years in prison on account of his Christian faith and activities, was found facedown in his solitary-confinement cell last Monday, 17 March, in Ward 209 of the prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence. He was rushed to the nearby Bani-Hashem Hospital, where he was treated and provided with a range of exercises to help him seek to regain movement in the left-hand side of his body. Two days later, Nasser was returned to the general ward of Evin Prison, where he remains detained alongside fellow Christian and prisoner of conscience Joseph Shahbazian, who will turn 61 tomorrow. It had been hoped that both Christians, as well as the recently assaulted Amir-Ali Minaei, might be released in time for the Iranian New Year – a two-week celebration which began last Thursday – but all three remain detained. Joseph and Nasser, who were re-arrested on 6 February, have been told a bail has been set for their release, but they remain in prison. No official charges have yet been brought against them, but they are due to appear before the prosecutor, where their charges will be read out and they will be permitted to provide their final defence. Nasser, who has now ended his hunger strike, quoted as his motivation the words of Jesus from John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” He continues to suffer with a lack of movement in his left side. Meanwhile, there are concerns over the fate of two Christian women who were arrested on the same day as Nasser and Joseph – one of whom, who can only be named as “Aida”, is believed to now be in the women’s ward of Evin Prison.