by designer | 23 Aug 2021 | Prisoners
Youhanna (Ahmad) Sarparast, along with two other converts, Morteza Hajeb Mashoodkari and Ayoob (Farzin) Pour-Rezazadeh, were arrested on 5 September 2021, during a raid by security forces in Rasht. These three converts, all members of the “Church of Iran,”...
by designer | 23 Aug 2021 | Prisoners
Ayoob (Farzin) Pour-Rezazadeh and two other members of a house church in Rasht were arrested on 5 September 2021, during a raid by security forces. These three converts, all members of the “Church of Iran,” were then taken to an unknown location. The other...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 13 Aug 2021 | Features
When Arina’s brother came to visit her in prison, he told her that if she refused to give up her Christian faith, he would no longer consider her his sister. Like her interrogators before him, Arina’s brother told her she had been “deceived” into converting to...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 13 Aug 2021 | Witness Statements
This is the first in our new series of Witness Statements. For a summary of Arina’s story, you can read our feature article here. Introduction 1. My name is Fatemeh (Arina) Zarei. I was born in 1975, in Isfahan, to a Muslim family with strong religious beliefs....
by Steve Dew-Jones | 12 Aug 2021 | Reports
The “systematic” oppression of Christian converts in Iran is the focus of a new in-depth report by the US-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. Available in both English and Persian, the report highlights the myriad ways in which converts to Christianity have...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 9 Aug 2021 | News
Christian convert Reza Zaeemi was yesterday released from prison, on the condition he wears an electronic tag for the remainder of his nine-month sentence. He is also banned from leaving the country for two years following the completion of his sentence. Reza has...
by designer | 5 Aug 2021 | Prisoners
by Steve Dew-Jones | 4 Aug 2021 | Write a Message
Article18 is calling on the Iranian government to immediately release Christian prisoner of conscience Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, and to stop prosecuting Christian converts like him. Nasser, who celebrated his 60th birthday on 3 August, has been in Tehran’s Evin Prison...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 4 Aug 2021 | News
Left to right: Mohammad Ali (Davoud) Torabi, Mohammad Kayidgap, Esmaeil Narimanpour, and Alireza Varak-Shah. Four Christian converts from the south-western city of Dezful are the latest Iranian Christians to be officially charged with “propaganda against the Islamic...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 30 Jul 2021 | Features
The deaths of an elderly Iranian couple following a violent raid by intelligence agents on their house-church in 2008, though a relatively recent event, remains a largely untold story. Abbas Amiri, who was 63, and his wife Sakineh Rahnama – both converts to...
