Please pray for 60-year-old Iranian Christian Mina Khajavi, who is reported to be struggling with pain and unable to access the necessary medical care inside Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Mina, a convert from Islam, has arthritis and walks with a limp, and is serving a six-year sentence for “acting against national security by promoting ‘Zionist’ Christianity” in her role in a house church.
Farsi (Persian)-speaking Christians, being converts from Islam, are punishable as apostates according to Islamic law. Unlike the historic Armenian- and Assyrian-speaking Christian communities they are not permitted to hold church services or worship freely.
Mina was unable to begin her prison sentence for several months because of injuries sustained in a car accident in 2022 [Image credit: Article 18]
Mina began her sentence this year on 3 January. She was arrested in 2020 and sentenced in 2022. However, she was not required to begin her sentence until she had recovered after being run over by a car just before her sentence was due to start in the summer of 2022.
Mina’s ankle was badly broken in the accident, and she had to have metal plates fitted.
Now inside prison, according to a source close to her family, Mina is still in pain but has not received adequate care. It is reported that the only treatment she has received has been occasional painkillers.
Mina was sentenced alongside Iranian-Armenian pastor Joseph Shahbazian, who received a ten-year sentence and another Christian convert Malihe Nazari, who like Mina was sentenced to six years. Both Joseph and Malihe had their sentences reduced after retrials in 2023 and have been released from prison.
Mina is applying for her case also to be heard in a retrial.
Pray that Mina will quickly receive the medical care she needs. Ask that the retrial request will be granted, and she will soon be released. Intercede for all Christians who are enduring imprisonment in Iran for their faith in Jesus, and pray that their suffering will lead to endurance, proven character and abundant hope.
