by Steve Dew-Jones | 27 Sep 2022 | Features
This extract is taken from the latest episode of BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship, presented by Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani on 25 September. A young Guli, with her grandfather, whom she described as “a godly and wonderful Muslim man of deep faith”....
by Steve Dew-Jones | 27 Sep 2022 | News
Protests have been taking place across the country. Over 300 Iranian Christians have signed a joint statement in support of the nationwide protests, which have been raging since the death in custody of a young woman, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, on 16 September. The full...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 26 Sep 2022 | News
“We, Hamgaam Council of United Iranian Churches, Article18 and the Pars Theological Centre, as part of the Iranian Christian community, declare our solidarity with the bereaved family of Mahsa (Zina) Amini, and support their call for justice. In unison with the...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 16 Sep 2022 | Features
Rev Farhad Sabokrooh was 15 years old when he became a Christian in 1979, the same year religious fervour among Iran’s Muslims brought the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini back as the head of a new Islamic Republic. From the very beginning, then, the young Christian was...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 14 Sep 2022 | Witness Statements
For a summary of Rev Farhad and Shahnaz’s story, you can read our feature article here. Background Farhad 1. My name is Farhad Sabokrooh. I was born in 1964 and raised in a family of Mandaean faith – followers of John the Baptist – in the city of...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 8 Sep 2022 | Analysis
This article, written by Article18’s News Director Steve Dew-Jones, first appeared on The Critic under the headline, ‘Christians are being jailed in Iran’. Sara Ahmadi, 44, and Homayoun Zhaveh, 63, were unexpectedly detained in mid-August 14 months...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 30 Aug 2022 | News
An Iranian-Armenian pastor has today begun serving a 10-year prison sentence for holding church services in his home. Joseph Shahbazian, who is 58 years old, was yesterday given 24 hours to hand himself in to the authorities at Tehran’s Evin Prison, and did so today...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 23 Aug 2022 | News
Eight UN experts have called on the Iranian authorities to “stop persecution and harassment of religious minorities and end the use of religion to curtail the exercise of fundamental rights”. Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. (Photo:...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 22 Aug 2022 | Features
Mojtaba Keshavarz Ahmadi’s experiences since becoming a Christian 20 years ago show just how costly that decision can be for an Iranian who is considered to have been born a Muslim. As his interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence put it after his arrest, “Your...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 19 Aug 2022 | Witness Statements
For a summary of Mojtaba’s story, you can read our feature article here. Conversion 1. My name is Mojtaba Keshavarz Ahmadi, and I was born in 1967 in Tehran, to a religious Muslim family. My father was a Quranic teacher and imam of our local mosque. People called...
