Two more Christians confirmed killed in Iran protests

Two Christian converts have been confirmed dead in consequence of Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protests earlier this 12 months.

Protests in Iran began in December with the Bazaris, shopkeepers who’re generally loyal to the regime, essentially occurring strike attributable to concerns concerning the economy. Later separate protests against the federal government itself began and the regime got here down on them with deadly force. The numbers killed are highly disputed, but are believed to range from 7,000 to over 30,000.

The protests have been promoted and supported by foreign actors, including US President Donald Trump, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah of Iran, and Israel’s intelligence services, Mossad, who tweeted in Parsi, “We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the sphere.”

Iran is currently ranked by Open Doors because the tenth worst persecutor of Christians on the earth. Converts from Islam are particularly in danger, and it was two such Christians who’ve now been confirmed dead by Article 18, a gaggle committed to non secular freedom in Iran.

Article 18 said that Nader Mohammadi, 35, and Zahra Arjomandi, 51, were each shot and killed at separate protests on 8 January. 

Seventeen other Christians are confirmed to have been killed within the protests, some converts, others from the historic Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities.

Mohammadi is believed to have gotten involved within the protests as a direct results of Pahlavi’s intervention. According to Article 18, Mohammadi’s final message to relatives was, “I actually have come to the streets on the orders of the [Crown] Prince [Reza Pahlavi], and I have to obey this order.”

According to Mohabat News, an Iranian Christian website, Arjomandi’s body was held by Iranian security forces for six days. When her body was finally released, her family were forbidden from holding a memorial service or from spreading information concerning the circumstances of her death.