An Iranian Christian woman has endured ten days of intensive interrogation by intelligence officers and been forced to go to an Islamic religious leader to be “instructed”.
Three intelligence officers arrived at Roksari's home early one morning before Christmas 2018. They searched the rooms and seized mobile phones, Bibles and other Christian material before detaining her for questioning.
According to a local source, “Roksari was interrogated from morning until evening for ten consecutive days.” The wife and mother was finally released when bail of 30 million Toman (around £5,500) was paid.
She was taken before a prosecutor to answer charges of “acting against national security” and forced to go to an Islamic religious leader to be “instructed” and “offered the opportunity to return to Islam”.
Friends of Roksari say she is extremely distressed and request that fellow Christians pray for her and the four other women arrested asking that, “God will help all Christians who are arrested and interrogated in Iran to stand firm in the faith,” and that “those people responsible for the mistreatment of the women and the violations of their rights will repent of their actions”.
The Ministry of Intelligence in Iran, an Islamic Republic, particularly targets converts. As apostates from Islam, Christians are viewed as traitors deserving death (for men) and lifelong imprisonment with beating (for women) according to the Shia version of sharia law followed in Iran.
