A Christian convert from Islam is still being held in a detention center run by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence over a week after her arrest in the southern city of Shiraz.
Mojdeh Falahi, 36, whose two older sisters were arrested in 2019 for their Christian activities, was arrested on September 9 at the prosecutor’s office in Shiraz, and has not been heard from since.
She is understood to be detained in the Pelak-e 100 detention center, which is under the jurisdiction of the intelligence ministry.
Mojdeh Falahi was arrested for “illegal Christian activities” on September 9. [Image credit: Article 18]
Mojdeh, a hairdresser, had visited the prosecutor’s office to provide a Christian friend with essential documents required for his release following his own arrest the previous day.
However, Mojdeh was herself immediately detained and is now being held on charges of “Christianity” and “illegal Christian activities.”
Mojdeh’s family have visited the prosecutor’s office repeatedly since her arrest and requested to see her, but as of the time of writing they have been refused permission. Mojdeh has yet to be granted access to a lawyer.
Mojdeh’s sisters, Maryam and Marjan, were among a group of eight Christian converts arrested in Bushehr, 200 miles west of Shiraz, in July 2019. Both sisters received heavy fines for their Christian activities in 2020.
Maryam, a nurse, was banned for life from working for any national institution, including the hospital where she had worked for 20 years.
In a separate court case in 2020, a judge ruled that Maryam and her husband, Sam Khosravi, could no longer maintain custody of their adopted daughter, Lydia, because they were Christians and Lydia, of unknown parentage, was considered a Muslim.
Unlike the historic Armenian- and Assyrian-speaking Christian communities of Iran, Farsi-speaking Christians such as Mojdeh and her family are converts from Islam – that is, apostates – and therefore punishable according to Islamic law for practicing the Christian faith.
Pray that Mojdeh will receive proper legal representation and that the charges against her will be dropped. Ask that she will know the depths of our Lord’s love and comfort in her ordeal, and that she will soon be restored to her family.
