Marziyeh Amirizadeh: The Pope, Iran, and My Being Sentenced to Death as a Christian in Iran
Only after my release from Iran’s notorious Evin prison in 2009 did I begin to learn about the extent of the wide, grassroots support my friend and I received from around the world. At one point, one senior prison official angrily let me know about the huge number of letters of support that were sent to us in prison, though we were never given access to any of them. The number must have been vast, in that it’s believed that the widespread pressure on the Islamic regime was at least in part responsible for our being released from death row, fearing the possibility of being executed by hanging at any time.
In addition to the vast grassroots support, I learned that world leaders, including Pope Benedic,t also wrote and expressed their support, adding pressure to the Islamic regime from the top down.
It’s no secret that since 1979, the Islamic Republic has used arrests, torture, and execution as a means of repressing the Iranian people. Hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered over the decades, some following fake, staged trials like mine, where the verdict was predetermined. Others have been executed in cold blood on the streets, many of whose remains “disappeared” by being buried and literally paved over, thrown in lakes with their hands bound, and other sick inhuman acts that define the Islamic Republic.
With hundreds of thousands of Iranians executed, what made my case different, why the international outcry from people as influential as the Pope, and why does that matter today?
I was arrested in March 2009 and convicted of “apostacy,” carrying an automatic death sentence. My “crime?” I converted to Christianity a decade earlier. When my friend and I were arrested, all the authorities knew was that we had become Chrisitan. That was a crime enough for them, and reason enough to sentence us to death by hanging. They did not know that we had distributed 20,000 bibles across Iran, that we ran two home churches, that we spoke openly about Jesus and the gospel, bringing many other Iranians who were hungry for truth and a relationship with the true God, to Christianity as well.
Since being released from prison due to the pressure on the regime, and moving to the United States, I have spoken out and written widely about the need to bring down the Islamic Republic. In a dream, God once told me He was giving them a chance to repent, otherwise He would destroy them. Given the evil it represents and the death and suffering it has inflicted, no means to do so are illegitimate. I speak from my personal experiences, but also as a Chrisitan. So it’s shocking to hear Christians directly or indirectly defend the Islamic regime by not standing up and speaking out for oppressed Christians in Iran, the Iranian people, and supporting any means necessary to eradicate the Islamic regime when Islam is at its core the enemy of Christianity.
The Koran is explicit about the status of Jews and Christians. It is incompatible with religious freedom. It requires subservience to Islam, their god, and their prophet. It does not allow non-Moslems to live peacefully alongside Islam and certainly not in any way that they deem as a conflict with Islam.
Recently, there has been friction between President Trump and Pope Leo related to the war against the Islamic Republic. The President wrote that the Pope “should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church.”
Pope Leo responded, “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do…there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran. And this is truly unacceptable! There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole, in its entirety.”
What I know as an Iranian who spent nearly a year on death row, and a lifetime subjugated by the evil Islamic regime as a woman and as a Christian, is that the threat to the Iranian people comes from the Islamic regime. Not only should pressure not yield, but pressure on the regime also works. The Islamic Republic is evil. The Iranian people and Christians in Iran must be supported through all means necessary. If Pope Benedict spoke up on my behalf, I can’t imagine him not speaking up for all Iranians, and Iranian Christians in particular. Where was Pope Leo’s moral outrage when the Islamic regime slaughtered tens of thousands?
Today, the fastest-growing (underground) church in the world is in Iran. As leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo has not just an opportunity but an obligation to speak out in support of them, and whatever it takes to free the Iranian people. Iranian Christians live in fear of torture, imprisonment, and execution.
The Islamic regime has slaughtered tens of thousands of Iranians this year alone, injuring hundreds of thousands. The regime is evil, satanic, to its core. It must be stopped. How can the Pope do anything other than support the Iranian people, the persecuted Iranian church, and every effort to bring down the godless ayatollahs, mullahs, and IRGC, who have repressed Iranians for so long, not to mention being responsible for the death and harm to hundreds of thousands around the world?
The Pope also recently stated that God does not hear the prayers of those who make war. Forget that this is biblically unfounded, that God Himself designated people who lead and fought wars to be some of the greatest Biblical role models; sometimes, war is necessary. In the case of Iran, it is. If the Islamic Regime is not eliminated and Iran is not freed from the darkness of Islam, it will continue to infiltrate Western society, erode our Judeo-Christian values, and see many more victims inside and outside Iran who will not be as lucky as I was.
But if Pope Leo doesn’t believe me, hopefully he’ll listen to the words of the prophet Jeremiah (49:34-39) who says that God Himself will destroy Elam (modern Iran) and establish His kingdom there. Rather than being critical of the war to destroy the regime, the Pope should be celebrating it as a prophecy fulfilled.
The war against the Islamic Republic is necessary, it is just, and the least the Pope can do is support its goals to free Iran and the world from the clutches of the ayatollahs. I pray he will change his path and stand up boldly, in support of the Iranian people, as Pope Benedict did for me. Please join me in prayer that the evil veil of darkness will be lifted from Iran once and for all.
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Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), a public speaker, and a columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.
Marzi also is the founder and president of NEW PERSIA whose mission is to be the voice of persecuted Christians and oppressed women under Islam, expose the lies of the Iranian Islamic regime, and restore the relationships between Persians, Jews, and Christians. www.NewPersia.org.
