"Guli Frances Dehghani" is the first female candidate for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury.
Guli Frances Dehghani became the leading candidate as the first female candidate for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury.
Goli (Golnar) Dehghani was born in Isfahan in 1966 and is the daughter of Hassan Dehghani-Tofti, the first bishop of the Anglican Church of Iran. Her father was also a writer. After the 1979 revolution, when churches were targeted by Islamists, the Isfahan Episcopal Church was also attacked, and Bahram Dehghani, the only son of Bishop Hassan Dehghani, was murdered, along with other Christians. After his murder, the church's property was confiscated and the Dehghani family was forced to leave Iran, as were many other Christians.
After years of being away from her homeland and standing firm in her faith, Goli, the daughter of a peasant family, became a bishop in 2017. She represented a new generation of female leaders in a church where for centuries men were elected as bishops.
According to Christian Today, Goli Dehghani has paved the way for her by relying on innovative programs, something that in the first generations of female bishops depended on traditional male support networks. The news network wrote about Goli Dehghani’s innovative programs: “Bishop Goli Dehghani’s innovative programs, initiatives such as the Vision and Strategy that aim to redefine the role of the church in modern society, demonstrate a practical approach based on sustainable development. His focus on strengthening the church’s presence in local communities and responding to tangible needs is an effort to restore the institution’s connection with a generation that is gradually distancing itself from traditional rituals.”
According to published reports, now that Graham Usher has withdrawn from the race for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Guli Frances Dehghani, Bishop of Chelmsford, has become the main choice for the position as the first female candidate for this historic position and is one step closer to leading the official Church of England, which will mark a major and historic transformation in the Church of England.
In an interview with a local newspaper two years ago, Bishop Goli Dehghani said of maintaining his identity after four decades of migration: "I find it interesting how people can consider themselves to belong to a new society?! While they are miles away from their birthplace. I am British but at the same time I have remained Iranian."
He also stated in the British House of Lords during the nationwide protests and in response to the execution of Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard: "As an Iranian, I still have friends and loved ones there who I am worried about. It is possible that more executions are on the way, as dozens of sentences have been issued in this case."
The Dehghani-Tofti family is just one of the Christian families that were oppressed by the Islamic Republic after the revolution, their property confiscated, and they were forced to emigrate. Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic has forced many Christians to leave their homeland and continues to oppress, detain, and confiscate their property, sentencing them to prison on false charges and paying heavy fines. Many of them are also forced to leave their homeland and live in exile after being released from prison.
