Story by Onize Oduah/World News
Ahead of U.S.-Israeli military strikes, Iranian Christians hoped for a regime change to end a deadly crackdown on demonstrators
At a recent funeral for an Iranian protester killed in anti-government protests, his mother made an unusual request: She asked attendees to applaud.
The woman’s pastor calls her “courageous.” He explained the request was a sign of defiance of the regime and in honor of demonstrators killed by government forces.
“She [also] used the funeral ceremony as an opportunity to share the gospel of Christ with everyone present,” the pastor, using the pseudonym Arash Ariya, told news outlet, WORLD.
In the past week—and ahead of Saturday military strikes in their country by Israel and United States—many Iranians have danced, clapped, and cheered in cemeteries and around the graves of protesters killed during January’s deadly anti-government demonstrations. They altered a traditional memorial rite marking the end of the 40-day mourning period, a way of offering a continued statement against a regime that killed their loved ones.
The outbursts showed a population that was still grappling with the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that began in December. Authorities say more than 7,000 people have died, but other Iranian reports say the actual toll could exceed 36,000. For Christians, who make up a tiny minority in the Muslim country and face persecution for their beliefs, the protests came after an already difficult year. Pastors and Christian advocates say the unrest brought opportunities for Christians to practice their beliefs and pray for long-lasting change in the country.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday morning described the overnight launch of a massive and ongoing U.S. military operation in Iran, one that comes in partnership with Israel and followed a series of failed diplomatic talks with Iranian officials. Trump had wanted assurances that Tehran will not obtain nuclear weapons but said Iran had refused to make concessions. He vowed to annihilate Iran’s nuclear program and its navy.
The weekend military operation followed months of political unrest in Iran. The anti-government demonstrations there began in late December after shopkeepers in Tehran shut their doors to protest the country’s devalued currency and a surge in the price of staples like rice and meat.
Soon, the outcry grew into calls for the ouster of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with crowds chanting “Death to the dictator.” The protests mostly drew Iranian youth seeking political change and more freedoms and tired of the heavy-handed Islamic establishment. Some analysts have called the protests Iran’s biggest uprising since the 1979 revolution.
Analysts say the regime may have since partially lifted an internet ban for some users, but many Iranians who have access likely have it only intermittently. Photos posted online in recent days showed families sifting through rooms of body bags, trying to identify their loved ones. Some Iranians with internet access told the news organization Iran International that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was arresting and killing people who attended or supported the protests.
In what is being called “silent executions,” authorities purportedly shipped the bodies of people they executed to morgues, with the Revolutionary Guard claiming the deaths occurred during the protests. Doctors who gave medical care to protesters were also reportedly arrested and killed. Ariya said at least 18 Christians were among the dead.
The regime’s lethal crackdown quelled many of the protests, but smaller-scale demonstrations continued. Students protested at five universities in the capital city of Tehran and another school in Mashhad last Sunday to coincide with the end of the mourning period.
Donnell Shariat heads Iran Alive Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that broadcasts the gospel into Iran via satellite. She said that during the protests, she discouraged Iranian Christians from attending the demonstrations due to safety concerns, but she also suggested how they could support those who do. Shariat partners with Texan healthcare providers who teach Iranians via online classes how to bandage cuts, treat bullet wounds, and set broken bones.
She had also encouraged Christians to distribute food, water, and clothing to marchers and use the opportunity to talk with other Iranians about their beliefs or pray over protesters. Some heeded the advice: Shariat said one woman living in an apartment on a main street in Tehran heard protesters chanting “death to the regime.” The woman prayed over the protesters for an hour, asking the Lord to turn their chants of death to cheers for liberty. Within a half hour, according to Shariat, the words of the protesters began changing.
Shariat described another story in which a woman in Tehran was gathering apples in her backyard when she heard gunshots. She ran to the scene and found a man and a woman—likely protesters—injured and bleeding on an empty street. Fearing the state police would return to kill them, she rushed them into her house and treated their wounds. She then shared the gospel with them and hid them in her home, Shariat said.
According to Shariat, such stories continued to emerge as Iranians regained internet access. She said underground believers have claimed to her that 3,000 people are converting to Christianity per week. The group links the conversions to the growing discontent with the regime.
“The people have been suffering inside [Iran], and have been fed up for years and years,” said Shah Ahmadi, Iran Alive’s director of strategic alliances.
A report released last week by the Middle East Concern, Open Doors, and two other religious freedom advocacy groups found that Iran detained 254 Christians for their religious activities or beliefs last year, nearly twice as many as the year before. In nearly all of the arrests, officers used vague interpretations of the Iranian Penal Code, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Most of the arrests followed the end of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel last June. More than 50 Christians were detained the next month, and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security called them Iranian spies trained under a “‘Zionist’ Christian evangelisation movement.”
One Iranian-American woman told WORLD that many of the anti-government protesters wrote their wills before going out to the streets. “I have lived in Iran. I know what it is like to live like that,” she said. “Animals don’t do what [regime leaders] do. They are savages.”
Shariat and Ahmadi said many Iranians believe that interventions from Trump or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could end the regime.
During U.S.-Iranian negotiations ahead of this weekend’s attacks, Ariya said some Iranian Christians were worried but remained hopeful. “Establishing churches in Iran and sharing the gospel freely—this is the dream for all of us,” he said.
—with additional reporting from Hannah Bates and Elizabeth Shenk
