Sara Akhavan remembers the moment as if it were yesterday. It was 1998 and she was barely 18 years old. During a visit to her Muslim family in Iran, her aunt, who lived in the United Kingdom, announced that she had been a Christian for years. “It was like a bomb had gone off!” Sara said, “The whole family rejected her. We refused to let her talk to us about Jesus. It is forbidden for Muslims. We told her, 'You are not clean'. But she stood her ground and said to my mother, 'One day you will seek my God, Jesus'.” And her prediction came true. The whole family became Christian.
Sara Akhavan is undoubtedly passionate about Jesus. Cath.ch spoke to her in Geneva on February 26, 2025, at the JC2033 World Encounters. “She's a lioness,” said Pastor Olivier Fleury, founder of JC2023.
With her long black hair flowing freely down her back, this 42-year-old Iranian woman has fearlessly testified for several years, face uncovered, in Europe and Latin America. At major evangelical events, as well as before British and European parliamentarians, she speaks with a powerful voice not only about her faith, but about the difficult situation faced by Christians in her country. The testimony she shared that day perfectly coincided with more official data on the harassment to which converts are subjected in Iran (see box).
Story of a chain of conversions
Sara began, “A year after my aunt's visit, I went to Germany to stay with an uncle and his wife, not knowing that they had been converted by my aunt. There was no Koran in the house and my uncle did not perform his prayers. It worried me.”
The young girl then spoke to her relative, her heart beating fast, “From the day we were born, as Muslims, the Koran is sung in our ears so that we grow up with it. I was afraid that God would punish me when my uncle mentioned Jesus.” Yet, just an hour later, she said that she, too, wanted to give her heart to the Lord. “We called my aunt in England. She wasn't surprised. She had been praying for my family in this way for 15 years. Her prayer prepared my destiny."
Back in Iran, with her foot barely on the tarmac, Sara excitedly told her sister Lily about her experience. ”I felt God's peace in my heart. I had gold in my hands and I heard the call of the Lord sending me on a mission. I didn't know how to do it. I had no training. I said to my mother, ‘Mom, I'm a Christian. Jesus is the Son of God, the king of kings.' I wanted to share that with everyone.”
Sara put the conversion of her family in the hands of the Lord. Six months later, while her mother was performing the Namaz prayer (Islamic prayer in Persian) in her room, she heard a voice which she “felt with all her heart and which burned in her head” saying to her, “I am the truth. I am the way. Believe in me.” Alerted by her mother's cries, Sara recognized a sentence she had heard about Jesus. Her parents converted almost immediately, followed a few months later by her sister, Lily, and brother.
JC2033
The JC2033 (Jesus Celebration 2033) Global Gathering brought together nearly 100 Reformed, Evangelical, Orthodox and Catholic participants from more than 30 countries in Geneva from February 26 to March 2. Jerry Pillay, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, was invited to speak. “A broken and suffering world needs Christian unity,” he said.
Thus the question of Christian unity and the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection of Christ, the very reasons for the creation of JC2033, came up again like a mantra. This organization encourages the world's churches to prepare and celebrate together “the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter 2033”. The hope is that Easter can be celebrated by all Christians on the same day that year, as it will be April 20, 2025, in conjunction with the 1500th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. LB
An underground church in Iran
Sara’s family lived their new faith quietly at first. Then in 2005, their aunt in England sent them a young Iranian Christian to help them grow in their faith. He stayed with them for a year. With him, Sara began to understand the concept of the Church and realized that she could in turn evangelize other Iranians. She went to study in Istanbul, Turkey, at a school run by the Elam Ministries movement, an Iranian Christian group based in the United Kingdom conducting missionary activities in Iran and neighboring countries.
For the first time, the young Iranian woman was allowed to go to a church and sing at the top of her voice. “In Europe you can find lots of beautiful Bibles in bookshops. Christians are free, but they don't shout about their faith! And I was saying how much I would like to be able to go out freely in Iran to share the Good News with others.”
“In Europe, you can find magnificent Bibles in bookshops. Christians are free, but they don't shout about their faith!”
She continued, “During a night of prayer, the Lord showed me the city of Isfahan. I returned to Iran and helped seven house churches to open there.” [These domestic churches are developing in countries where being a Christian is not allowed, similar to what was done in the days of early Christianity. Very small communities gather in private homes to pray or share the Word: ed.]
37 days in Evin prison, 23 in solitary confinement
On December 26, 2010, as would become a habit (see box), Iranian security forces arrested 72 pastors and Christian church leaders across different cities in the country. Among them were Sara and Lily, ages 27 and 28 respectively. Sara spent 37 days, including 23 in solitary confinement, in Evin prison in Tehran, reputed to be one of the toughest in the country.
“They interrogated me at the station for seven hours to get me to give them the names of other house church leaders. They threatened me with prison 'until my hair is as white as my teeth'. I told them I was ready. I was scared, but I was young and passionate.”
Placed in solitary confinement, she became despondent. When she could no longer eat or drink, she heard Jesus say to her, “Look at yourself. You act as if I were dead!” She immediately got up and sang in Farsi, “In the name of Jesus, there is our victory,” she said.
On her release from prison, Sara, who wanted to continue evangelizing Iranians, left the country for Turkey, then Argentina and finally Spain. Lily stayed in Iran, where she was not in danger as long as she did not try to convert Muslims and was content to live her faith privately. “It's not that she's not doing anything there,” her sister explains. “She prays a lot that this land will belong to Jesus.”
Brave believers
Converted Christians from Iran are strong in their faith, Sara Akhavan assures us. A few months ago, the police arrested a man. His wife had not heard from him for a few weeks. When she finally managed to get him on the phone, he asked her to tell his brothers not to pray for him to get out of prison. he felt that too many prisoners needed to receive the Good News.
“I also saw my mother's strength demonstrated the night that five angry policemen came to arrest my sister and me. My mother had put on a long coat that covered her entire body, in accordance with current Islamic requirements. They searched everything, then told Lily to come with them. My sister asked to be able to say goodbye to my parents. She approached my mother, who had been sitting there in silence from the start, and I heard her say, 'Mommy, I'm so scared.' My mother remained calm and did not hug her. I felt sad for my sister.”
“I also saw my mother's strength that night when five angry policemen came to arrest my sister and me.”
“But suddenly my mother got up and addressed the men, Sara reported. ‘For two hours, you have been in my house and searching all around us while we remained silent. You are targeting us because of our faith. My head is held high because I stand before Jesus. Take my daughter. We are going to prison for our faith and for Christ.’ Then she said to Lily, ‘Don't be afraid, for I will be with you.’ The policemen fell silent. They took my sister and closed the door.”
The mother then took off her jacket. Under her arms, she had hidden Bibles - a precious commodity in Iran fifteen years ago - for fear that they would be destroyed by the security men. That was why she had not been able to embrace my sister. The next day, my mother and I went to the station to find out how Lily was. It was only then that security recognized me and I was arrested, too.”
“I don't think the persecution is the end of the story,” says Sara Akhavan. ”Our story shows that the Church is alive and growing. As a Muslim, I was always afraid of Allah. I couldn't communicate and relate to him. I came to Christ because I found true hope in Him.” (cath.ch/lb)
Threats to converts in Iran
The data below is from Iran: Threats to converts, a report published in 2018 by the Swiss Refugee Council. OSAR relied on numerous, cross-referenced sources, such as the UK Home Office, the US Department of State, the Danish Immigration Service and Amnesty International, along with Elam Ministries, the group of Christians with which Sara Akhavan is affiliated, and Mansour Borji, of the British organization Article 18.
Officially, the country's Christian population (nearly 118,000 according to the 2011 census) is mainly composed of ethnic Christians, Armenians and Assyrian-Chaldeans. However, there are also Protestant and Evangelical groups, to which many converts belong who practice their faith in secret. According to the estimates–unconfirmed–of Elam Ministries, 500,000 to 1.5 million Iranians have converted to Christianity.
The Iranian constitution recognizes ethnic Christians, but not converts. Conversion from Islam to another religion is not explicitly prohibited by the Penal Code, but Sharia law is applicable and judges can invoke fatwas. The Christians most susceptible to retaliatory measures (expropriation, loss of employment, arrest, threats against their family) are therefore evangelicals and converts.
Since the “green revolution” of 2009, it is common around Christmas to see arrests of Christians in charge of unregistered house churches: 142 people were arrested, for example, in December 2018 and 46 in December 2023. They are generally released after a few hours or a few days, but sometimes the sentence is heavy. On May 27, 2024, Yasin Mousavi, a convert to Christianity and accused of “promoting Zionist Christianity,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
There is, in fact, a great deal of mistrust towards Christians and converts, who are perceived at best as instruments of the West aiming to undermine Iran's political and religious structures, and at worst as spies. LB
Lucienne Bittar, Cath.ch
