Arrest of “Mojdeh Fallahi” Christian Citizen
“Mojdeh Fallahi,” a Christian citizen, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence last week.
According to published reports, Mojdeh Fallahi, a Christian citizen, was arrested by the Shiraz Ministry of Intelligence on Monday, September 19th. Following her arrest, she was transferred to detention facility Pelak Sad, which operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Intelligence and is located near Adel Abad Prison.
On Monday, she went to the prosecutor’s office to submit necessary documents for the release of one of her Christian friends who had been arrested the day before, and was immediately arrested. It is suspected that her friend, under coercion and pressure from Ministry of Intelligence agents, had asked Mojdeh to bring documents to the prosecutor’s office for his release, which is why she was immediately detained.
The charges against Mojdeh Fallahi are listed as “Christianity” and “illegal Christian activity.” This is despite the fact that Ms. Fallahi has been a believer in Jesus Christ for years and has not engaged in significant Christian activities, only working as a hairdresser.
Mojdeh’s family has repeatedly visited the prosecutor’s office during the past week to visit their daughter, but have been unable to meet with her, who is even denied the right to have a lawyer. It should be noted that Maryam and Marjan Fallahi, Mojdeh’s sisters, along with their husbands, were arrested in Bushehr in June 2019 and a year later, Maryam and Marjan were fined a combined total of 14 million tomans.
Maryam Fallahi was working as a nurse at the time of her arrest and after her release, she was permanently barred from working in any government institution, including the hospital where she had served for 20 years. Additionally, in late 2019, the judge issued a ruling to revoke her custody of their adopted daughter. The judge had stated that Maryam and her husband Sam Khosravi could no longer maintain custody of their adopted daughter “Lydia” because they are Christians, and the court judge considered Lydia to be Muslim. Thus, Christian citizens are not allowed to maintain custody of a Muslim child.
When this ruling was issued by the judge, more than 120 lawyers and civil activists and child rights advocates signed an open letter addressed to Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the judiciary at that time, demanding the cancellation of the Bushehr court’s ruling to deprive this Christian couple of adoption rights.
“Mansour Borji,” director of Organization Article 18, wrote about this: “Mojdeh’s mother, who is now in her sixties, has endured great suffering following the arrest of her two daughters five years ago due to their Christian beliefs, and has been severely harmed as a result. She has never fully recovered from the trauma and grief caused by their arrest, and now, following the arrest of her third daughter, she is forced to relive the nightmare of the past. The Islamic Republic, through the arbitrary detention of Christian citizens, inflicts irreparable damage on families and their loved ones.”
The arrest of Mojdeh and many Christian citizens, whose detention is often not even reported, comes as officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have repeatedly claimed that no one is arrested for their beliefs. However, Christians, especially those who have converted from Islam to Christianity, are arrested and imprisoned solely because of their Christian faith and peaceful religious activities, which include prayer, possessing and reading the Bible, and conducting their own religious ceremonies.
