Christians call for defense and release of prisoners in Iran

A bunch of Christian activists have called upon the international community to do more to guard political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran, maintaining that many are the victims of severe human rights violations.

Christian Activists for a Free Iran (CAFI) describes itself as a set of activists, lawyers and pastors of varied political backgrounds.

The group said that there have been increasing reports of the mistreatment of prisoners, including torture, psychological abuse, rape, removal of wombs, forced drug taking and limited access to medical care.

CAFI said that a few of the prisoners were protesters who had joined in calls to overthrow the federal government earlier this 12 months. Some prisoners are as young as 15. As well as anti-regime activists, some longer-term prisoners are being held because of their religious or political opinions.

Iran is currently ranked by Open Doors because the tenth worst persecutor of Christians on this planet. Converting from Islam to Christianity is against the law within the country and potentially carries the death sentence.

According to Open Doors even Iran’s historic Christian communities, while not threatened with apostasy laws, are still “treated as second-class residents, facing discrimination with jobs, marriage laws and inheritance laws”.

CAFI is asking the international community to observe the treatment of political and spiritual prisoners in Iran and work for his or her immediate release.

Attieh Fard, director of CAFI, said, “We imagine that the silence of the international community may lead to further human rights violations, whereas timely attention and motion may help save human lives.

“We hope to be the voice of those innocent prisoners who remain behind prison partitions and must not be forgotten.”

Iranian Christians abroad are generally unified of their dislike for a staunchly anti-Christian regime, nonetheless there are mixed views towards the present conflict between Iran and the Israel/US alliance.

While the Iranian-born Bishop of Chelmsford has denounced the war as “unjust and illegal”, others within the diaspora have said that a “terrorist regime” was finally facing justice.