The High Cost of Following Christ in Iran.
- Will you be willing to go to prison for 7 ½ Years for converting to Christ?
- Or be willing for 2 ½ years in prison for ‘planning a Christmas program?
- Or to be imprisoned for 2 years for starting a ‘house church?’
This is the high price Christian converts pay in Iran, where the authorities use severe punishment, especially against Muslim background believers.
According to ‘Article18’ – an organization advocating on behalf of persecuted Christians in Iran, one of five Christian converts sentenced to a combined total of over 40 years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on charges related to their religious activities has begun serving his sentence of nine and a half years.
Please remember the following Christians in your prayers as they start serving prison sentences for supposed crimes related to their religious activities.
The Bible admonishes us to especially pray for those in prison and identify with their suffering and pain:
‘Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
Hebrews 13:3 NLT.
Morteza Faghanpour-Saasi (38)
Nine and a half year Prison sentence.
Morteza reported to Evin Prison to start serving a nine-and-a-half-year sentence as He was among a group of Christian converts arrested in Varamin and environs in June 2024.
Five Christians, including Morteza, were each sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by Varamin Revolutionary Court on charges of “propaganda activity contrary to Islamic law due to overseas connections” and an additional seven months for “propaganda against the system.”
He was given an additional seventeen-month sentence for allegedly insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader on social media.
Background:
Morteza was arrested on 12 June 2024 at his workplace, after which security forces raided his home, confiscating Bibles, evangelistic booklets, his mobile phone and Christian images displayed on his walls.
During his six months in pre-trial detention, Morteza spent 20 days in Ward 209 of Evin Prison — operated by the Ministry of Intelligence — where he was reportedly tortured and was then held for another month in Ward 240, before being transferred to Ward 8 for four months after being unable to post bail.
The names of two of the converts have not been reported, but two of the other Christians sentenced to eight years and one month in prison were Hessamuddin Mohammad Junaidi and Abolfazl Ahmadzadeh-Khajani.
Reports indicate that some of the converts were pressured to renounce their faith in exchange for reduced sentences.
Zahra (Hannah) Gholami (35) and Hossein (Daniel) Mohammadi (66)
Two-year prison sentence for planning a Christmas Celebration!
Zahra and Hossein responded to a summons to serve two-year prison sentences, turning themselves in to security offices last week. They were arrested on 11 December 2024 when Iranian security raided a gathering in Shahriar planning a Christmas celebration.
Following a trial at Branch 2 of the Shahriar Revolutionary Court in July, Hannah, Daniel, and an Afghan convert Teymur Hosseini (45) known as “Kourosh,” were convicted on charges of “forming” and “membership” of a “group or association with the aim of disrupting national security” and each given a two-year prison sentence.
Daniel and Hannah were arrested following a raid by 30 intelligence agents on a house-church gathering in Shahriar on 11 December 2023, at around 7pm, when around 25 men, women and children had gathered to pray and worship together and to plan their Christmas celebration.
Kourosh and the unidentified Christian were arrested separately the same day following raids on their homes and workplaces in Karaj, and the two sets of arrests were later combined into one case by the Ministry of Intelligence.
Daniel, Kourosh and Hannah, who spent some time in the same cell as fellow Christian prisoner of conscience Mina Khajavi were detained until mid-February, before being released on bail equivalent to $20,000 each. The unidentified Christian was released on a much lower bail amount, equivalent to around $300.
The four Christians were tried on 2 July 2024 at Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court of Shahriar County, where they were sentenced under Article 498 of the Islamic Penal Code, related to organisation of “anti-state” groups. The Christians’ appeals and application for a retrial with the Supreme Court were both rejected.
Teymur Hosseini, 45, known as ‘Kourosh’
The Afghan Christian refugee begins two-year prison sentence in Iran
An Afghan Christian convert and refugee has begun serving a two-year prison sentence in Iran on “national security” charges related to his participation in a house-church, Article18 can confirm. Kourosh began serving his sentence on 16 November, the same day as co-defendants and fellow Christian converts Daniel Mohammadi and Hannah Gholami.
All three are serving two-year sentences on charges of “forming” and “membership” of a “group or association (house-church) with the aim of disrupting national security”. (House-churches are commonly labelled as “anti-state” groups by the authorities in Iran, despite their activities being no different from other churches around the world. House-churches are the only place of worship available to Christian converts (from Muslim background), as they are not permitted to enter the churches of Iran’s ethnic Armenian and Assyrian minorities)
Kourosh, a shoemaker who has lived in Iran for around 20 years and is married with three children, is serving his sentence in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.
Aida Najaflou, 44.
In detention includeding 65 days of solitary confinement.
A Christian convert who had to undergo spinal surgery after falling out of her bunk bed in Evin Prison was rushed back to hospital earlier this month after catching an infection. Aida Najaflou, 44, was operated on at the Shahid Tajrish Hospital in Tehran after suffering the injury on 31 October, but sent back to Evin Prison a week later.
The case of Aida, fellow Christian convert Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, Iranian-Armenian Christians Joseph and Lida Shahbazian and another individual who has not been identified, is currently under judicial review, following a second court hearing on 21 October at Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by notorious judge Abolqasem Salavati.
The Christians are being tried on “propaganda” and “collusion” charges related to their religious activities.
Prior to the accident, Aida had repeatedly warned prison officials that climbing to the top bunk was dangerous for her, as she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. However, despite these warnings, her requests to be transferred to a lower bed were ignored. After her fall, Aida was initially sent to another Tehran hospital, Taleghani, but denied proper medical treatment and returned to prison the same day – on a stretcher and still in severe pain. This decision provoked protests from other political and religious prisoners in the women’s ward, prompting prison authorities to eventually transfer her to Shahid Tajrish.
Doctors recommended that Aida received urgent surgery to repair the fracture to her T12 vertebrae, followed by a long recovery period requiring specialised care and regular physiotherapy.
Aida has previously endured several major surgeries and was still in recovery from a nine-hour operation when she was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents in February.
She has been repeatedly denied access to adequate medical care during her detention, which included 65 days of solitary confinement in the ward operated by the Ministry of Intelligence: Ward 209.
Aida remains in detention due to her family’s inability to afford the extraordinarily high bail set for her in May, equivalent to $130,000.
Please Pray:
Your prayer is vital for these prisoners as only divine grace and strength that can sustain them during this terrible times of isolation and suffering.
Please forward this information to many as possible in your churches to mobilize prayer for these modern day heroes of faith as mentioned among those in Hebrews 11:
“But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free.
Hebrews 11:35-37
They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips.
Others were chained in prisons.
Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world!
The Good News:
The Apostle Paul, who was also imprisoned for the Gospel like Christians in Iran, had confidence that the Gospel will spread despite it:
‘And because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained. ‘
2 Timothy 2:9 NLT.
Amidst these challenges, the Operation World reports that: “Massive numbers of Iranians have come to Jesus in recent years! From only 500 Muslim-background believers in 1979, some estimates suggest the number is even greater than 1 million just in Iran alone. Large numbers of Persian people have also encountered the risen Christ outside of Iran. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have indicated that they are Christian.
But in Iran, a person can receive a death sentence for apostasy (abandoning religious faith). Despite this, 50,000 mosques have closed in recent years as Iranians are disillusioned with both the regime and with Islam. This growth is a remarkable move of the Holy Spirit, with many signs and wonders, dreams and visions.
For More information on Prayer for Christian Prisoners in Iran: