Iranian Church Official: Pressure on Christian Converts Increased Under Rouhani
Following the arrest of at least six Christian converts in the city of Rasht, an Iranian church official told Voice of America that pressure on Christian converts has increased since Hassan Rouhani came to power.
Behrouz Sadegh Khanjani, an Iranian church official, said on Tuesday, January 28, in an interview with Voice of America that currently approximately 117 Christian converts are in detention, of which 13 are members of the Iranian church. Four of these individuals, named Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, Saheb Fadaei, Mohammad Reza Omidi, and Yaser Mossibzadeh, have been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2 years exile to Sistan and Baluchestan.
According to Mr. Khanjani, the remaining 9 individuals are also denied visitation rights and have been able to have only one brief telephone contact with their families.
Hossein Kadivar and Khalil Pordehgan on January 29, Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad on February 10, and Mohammad Vafadar, Mohammad Islamdoost, and Kamal Namanian on February 15, were six Christian converts who were arrested in the past month in Rasht, the capital of Gilan Province in northern Iran, by security forces.
Mr. Khanjani told Voice of America that the charge typically leveled by judicial authorities against Christian converts is “actions against national security,” and most lawyers working on the cases of Christian converts or other religious minorities are usually threatened by the Ministry of Intelligence.
According to Mr. Khanjani, the only lawyer currently handling Christian converts’ cases is Vahid Meshgani Farahani, who according to available information is also “under pressure” from the Ministry of Intelligence.
Behrouz Sadegh Khanjani, an Iranian church official, says the Islamic Republic of Iran is seeking to create a monolithic society. In fact, even if some Twelver Shia Muslims do not believe in Wilayat al-Faqih (guardianship of the jurist), they are considered outsiders and treated as such.
Mr. Khanjani recalled that from the beginning of the 1979 Revolution until today, many Christian converts have been subjected to violence, and since 2009 pressure on Christian converts has increased, to the extent that Persian-language churches have been closed one after another and over two thousand Christian converts have been arrested in Iran. Pastor Hossein Soodmand was one of the individuals who was sentenced to death on apostasy charges in the 1980s and executed.
In recent years, the United States has protested in human rights reports the widespread violations of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Iran, and the U.S. State Department spokesman tweeted on the occasion of Cyrus Day, calling on the Islamic Republic to learn from Cyrus regarding his leadership and to stop the prosecution of Baha’is, Christian converts, Gonabadi Dervishes, and other minority groups in Iran.
Source: Voice of America
