Biography of Ibrahim Firouzi, a Imprisoned Pentecostal Christian

Ibrahim Firouzi is a Pentecostal Christian who is imprisoned due to his religious beliefs. Below is his biography, which has been compiled based on his own account and reported by religious minority news outlets.

Ibrahim was born on October 8, 1986 in the city of Hamadan. He was the fourth child and the first son of his family, having lost one of his sisters in a war-related incident and gaining another brother at the age of five. Ibrahim’s father was a driver and spent most of his days traveling; in summer and holidays, he would take Ibrahim with him to various cities.

He completed his primary education at Hafez Elementary School located on Shahids Street in Hamadan and was a playful but studious student. This continued until he lost his father due to a traffic accident when he was in the fourth grade of primary school. His primary years passed in the loss of his father, and his older sister also got married and left home.

Ibrahim spent a few months in middle school but decided to drop out due to financial difficulties and began working at a car painting shop. However, it was not long before he missed school and decided to continue his education while also working part-time.

He re-enrolled in school and three years later worked at an oil change shop next to his middle school. When there were no customers, he would study his lessons. Since Ibrahim’s father had been a truck driver, all the people in that area had special affection for Ibrahim because of their friendship and respect for his father.

Upon completing middle school, he entered high school and at the beginning of adolescence, like other teenagers, he faced emotional issues without a compassionate guide. He left school and sought full-time work, and this time in addition to economic problems, emotional attachments were also added, making the decision to find a well-paying job very serious for him. Since the salary from the oil change shop was insufficient, he left it. He tried various jobs from working in a luxury goods store to working in a ceramic kiln factory, but none of these jobs satisfied him. Due to his previous work, he had some acquaintances and at the age of fifteen he turned to his father’s profession, working as a truck assistant driver for three years, earning good income but not receiving proper wages due to not having a driving license.

At the age of eighteen, on a memorable Friday, due to not having a guardian, he received an exemption card from military service. Since his brother was leaving childhood behind, he felt his family needed a guardian, and for this reason he decided to change jobs. He sold his family home in Hamadan and purchased a house in the suburbs of Tehran, working at an automobile parts manufacturing company. Because of his technical background from his two previous jobs, Ibrahim quickly took charge of the production line. The beginning of this new life for Ibrahim coincided with his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ.

He had tasted poverty since childhood and could now earn a decent income while also leaving behind the attachments of his adolescent years. He became familiar with Christianity through satellite networks. He went through many struggles until he finally found Christ in his heart and felt that he was no longer the same person and that God had opened a new and important path for him.

Ibrahim devoted all his free time to studying the Bible and examining Christianity, and the love of serving God and Jesus Christ ignited in him. Initially, he began his service by purchasing Bibles and distributing them to those around him, and after some time he became acquainted with Christian communities who were able to help him more in this love. Although Ibrahim had only studied until the third year of middle school and could not attend university, he enrolled in virtual seminary 222 and through this was able to receive extensive education. He then became acquainted with the St. John the Apostle Center in Tehran and studied at this Catholic school for one more year until on October 28, 2010, the Ministry of Intelligence arrested him for Bible distribution and establishing a house church, ultimately sentencing him to 10 months imprisonment.

After his first release, he returned to his previous workplace and although he knew he would be arrested again, with the love he had found in God and Jesus Christ, he continued his religious activities. This happened on December 17, 2012, when Ministry of Intelligence agents arrested him at his workplace and charged him with proselytizing Christianity, sentencing him to one year imprisonment and two years exile to Sarbaaz city in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

However, this verdict did not satisfy the ministry, and they proceeded with further file-building with more serious charges, ultimately obtaining a five-year prison sentence in a subsequent ruling from Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, so that these sentences would have the value of time and cost spent on Ibrahim.

Ibrahim Firouzi introduced himself as a Pentecostal Christian in court and claims that he has not violated any laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has no opposition to the government. However, because the Iranian government is trying to prevent the spread of the salvation gospel, they have placed obstacles in his path with unjust, unfair, and false accusations. Now 22 months have passed since his third file-building and his five-year primary sentence has still not been determined, and he continues to serve his illegal imprisonment in Rjaei Shahr Prison…..