by Steve Dew-Jones | 12 May 2021 | News
Left to right: Milad Goodarzi, Amin Khaki, and Alireza Nourmohammadi. Three Christian converts in Fardis, near Tehran, have become the first known examples of Christians being charged under the contentious recent amendments to the Iranian penal code. Amin Khaki, Milad...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 8 May 2021 | Features
Bita and the 12 girls she looked after for over a decade and who she still refers to as her “daughters”. Foster mother Bita Rezaee was known as “auntie” to the 12 girls she had looked after for over a decade when she was arrested in April 2015....
by Steve Dew-Jones | 7 May 2021 | News
Bigan Farokhpour Haghighi with his son, Sina, who is 17 years old. An Iranian Christian convert faces imminent deportation from Turkey, which would separate him from his wife and paraplegic son and risk his re-arrest and imprisonment. Bigan Farokhpour Haghighi, who is...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 30 Apr 2021 | News
An Iranian Christian convert is awaiting a summons to begin a nine-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic by promoting evangelical Christianity”. Reza Zaeemi, who lives in Karaj, was initially sentenced to 18 months in prison following his...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 27 Apr 2021 | News
Left to right: Alireza Varak-Shah, Hojjat Lotfi Khalaf, Mohammad Ali (Davoud) Torabi, and Esmaeil Narimanpour. (MEC) Four Christian converts arrested by agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in the southwestern city of Dezful last week have been released without...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 27 Apr 2021 | News
An Iranian Christian convert has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Hamed Ashoori, who is 31 years old and lives in Fardis, west of Tehran, was verbally informed of the verdict on 12 April following his final court...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 26 Apr 2021 | Analysis
This is an English translation of an article first published in Persian on the website peace-mark.org. As the next Iranian presidential election approaches, Christian convert Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi interviewed Article18’s Kiaa Aalipour about the situation of...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 23 Apr 2021 | Analysis
This article was first published by the Washington, DC-based Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, part of Georgetown University, and is republished here with kind permission. Nazila Ghanea, director of International Human Rights Law Programmes at the...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 22 Apr 2021 | News
Iran’s Supreme Court is considering the retrial petitions for two high-profile cases involving Christian converts. The first relates to the prison sentences given to a 62-year-old man with advanced Parkinson’s disease, Homayoun Zhaveh, and his wife Sara Ahmadi, 43,...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 21 Apr 2021 | News
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has called on the US government to “prioritise” the resettlement of refugees who have experienced the “most egregious forms of religious persecution”, singling out “Iranian religious minorities” as an example. In...
