Guli Francis Dehqani Becomes First Female Candidate for Archbishop of Canterbury

Guli Francis Dehqani has become the leading candidate as the first female nominee for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury.

Guli (Golnar) Dehqani was born in 1345 (1966) in Isfahan and is the daughter of Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, the first bishop of the Anglican Church in Iran. Her father was also a writer. After the 1979 Revolution, when churches became targets of Islamist attacks, the Episcopal Church of Isfahan was also attacked, and Bahram Dehqani, the only son of Bishop Hassan Dehqani, was killed along with other Christians. Following his death, church assets were confiscated and the Dehqani family was forced to leave Iran, like many other Christians.

Guli, daughter of the Dehqani family, after years of separation from her homeland and steadfastness in her faith, reached the position of bishop in 2017. She became a representative of a new generation of female leaders in a church that had chosen men as bishops for centuries.

According to “Christianity Today,” Guli Dehqani has paved her path through innovative programs, a matter that in the first generations of female bishops was dependent on traditional male support networks. The news network wrote about Bishop Guli Dehqani’s innovative programs: “Bishop Guli Dehqani’s innovative programs, initiatives such as vision plans and strategies aimed at redefining the church’s role in modern society, indicate a practical and sustainable development-based approach. Her focus on strengthening the church’s presence in local communities and responding to concrete needs is an effort to revive the connection of this institution with a generation that is gradually distancing itself from traditional rituals.”

According to published reports, now that “Graham Usher” has withdrawn from the Canterbury Archbishop race, Guli Francis Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford, has become the leading candidate as the first female nominee for this historic position and is one step away from leading the official church of England, which will mark a major and historic transformation in the Church of England.

Bishop Guli Dehqani spoke during an interview with a local newspaper over the past two years about preserving her identity after four decades of migration: “I find it interesting how people can feel they belong to a new community while being thousands of miles away from their birthplace. I am British, yet I have remained Iranian at the same time.”

She also expressed during nationwide protests and in response to the executions of “Mohsen Shekari” and “Majid-Reza Rahnavard” in the British House of Lords: “As someone of Iranian descent, I still have friends and loved ones there whom I am concerned about. There may be more executions to come, as dozens of death sentences have been issued in this regard.”

The Dehqani-Tafti family is only one of the Christian families that, after the Revolution, has been subjected to persecution by the Islamic Republic’s rule, had their assets confiscated, and was forced to migrate from their homeland. Since the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic Republic has forced many Christians to leave their country and continues to persecute, detain, and confiscate their assets, condemning them to prison and heavy fines on false charges. Many of them, after their release from prison, are forced to leave their homeland and live in exile.