"They said if I return to Islam, I could have it all. But how could I forget what Jesus had done for me? The price was huge!"
Simin
Simin distinctly remembers when she first held a Bible in her hands. Her boyfriend, Moshen urged her to read it. He proclaimed that the message of the Bible was life-transforming. She explained to him that her life was so busy being a nurse, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. So Simin finally agreed and what she read stunned her!
Being a woman in a man-centered Muslim culture, Simin understood the difficult societal challenges. What impressed her so much about the Bible was the way Jesus treated women. "The Bible became very attractive to me, because of its attitude toward marriage," Simin explained, "It was very different than the world of Islam. In the Bible, women have so much value."
As she continued to read the Bible, one day, she watched a movie about Jesus on satellite TV and remembered the emotions she felt watching him carry the cross. It left such a dramatic impact on her that she knelt down and cried for hours.
"Something broke inside me," Simin declared, "Something changed inside of me!" It was an experience that changed her life forever.
Both Moshen and Simin had a deep desire to grow in their faith but were faced with another difficult challenge. They were afraid to attend any "above-ground churches" in Iran. The government kept meticulous records of everyone who attended and monitored the services, to make sure that Muslims were not evangelized. Pastors were forbidden to preach in Farsi and because of the strict guidelines, very few of these types of churches remained open. The only other option was the secret house church. New believers could be transparent about their faith, worship, pray, and sing within the walls of private homes with much more freedom.
Six months after her conversion to Christ, Simin attended her first house church meeting. She didn't know what to do during the service but remembered that there was tremendous joy among the other believers. "I didn't understand the reason for their joy, but during worship, I tasted the sweetness of God's presence."
A few weeks later, the pastor married Moshen and Simin. The house church experience strengthened Simin's faith and gave her the boldness to begin sharing her faith. One day at work, there was 5-year-old child who was very ill after heart surgery. The doctor didn't give him much hope of living. Moshen and Simin prayed together, believing in the power of Jesus, and to their amazement, the next morning the little boy was completely healed! The doctors were shocked by his sudden recovery. The dramatic answer to prayer strengthened her faith and caused to her begin praying for every patient in the hospital.
Growing stronger on her faith, Simin decided that it was finally time to tell her parents about becoming a Christian. They were shocked and told her that she had lost her mind. She realized that it was time to move to another city to escape the discrimination and persecution from her parents. However, the culture in the new city was much more conservative. Simin began receiving warning letters about not conforming to the Islamic dress code. The pressure also began mounting at the hospital where she worked. Her colleagues noticed that she didn't join them for Islamic prayers or fast during Ramadan. Simin realized what the consequences would be if they discovered that she was a Christian. Being forced to sign a commitment paper, she reluctantly began attending the prayer meetings and for the next few months, life became very stressful.
When Moshen and Simin learned the shocking news of their pastor being arrested, they became very discouraged. What would happen to them? Would they be arrested next? Where would they go to fellowship now? They knew they had to avoid contact with the other members. Yet, God had other plans for them. They both decided to keep preaching the gospel, despite the danger and persecution. Soon their house was filled with hungry and thirsty ex-Muslims. They began conducting services, making sure all of the doors and windows were closed and that they controlled the volume of their voices during worship.
However, being careful was not enough. Simin remembers the devastating morning when 12 security officers burst through their front door in 2019. They later found out that a family whose son had become a Christian through their witness reported their activities to the police. The entire house was searched, and boxes of Bibles and Christian CDs were confiscated. Simin's daughter was very sick with a digestive disease but the police refused to let them bring along her medicine.
The interrogations were very stressful for Simin. They demanded to know the names of other believers and threatened her if she didn't return to Islam, that she would spend years in prison. The police warned her of the consequences of what would happen to her child. All she could do right now was to trust in Jesus.
After 18 days of imprisonment, emotional torture, and interrogation, Mohsen and Simin were released on bail until their court date. A few days passed and they finally appeared before a judge charged with "propaganda against the regime" and accepting "Zionist Christianity. Mohsen was sentenced to a year of penal servitude and banned from the city where he lived. Simin was fined and later received a call from the hospital informing her that she was fired.
Both Moshen and Simin were determined to serve Jesus and realized that the only alternative was to leave Iran. For the next seven months, they hid in a small, dirty room in a smuggler's house during the COVID-19 epidemic. When it was finally safe to travel, they crossed over the border to freedom in another country. Not once during their ordeal was Simin ever tempted to deny her faith. "God was with us, every step that we took," she recalls. During their 18-hour ride in a truck across the border, Simin's sick daughter received a touch of healing from God and slept peacefully the rest of the way.
After the suffering and persecution, workers from Open Doors, a ministry to the persecuted church, contacted Moshen and Simin and gave them intense discipleship training. For the next year, they were taught how to begin an online ministry. Simin now teaches the Bible to women in Iran, preparing them to be leaders in house churches.
"Islam and the regime in Iran have destroyed the identity of women and so many of them are broken," Simin laments, "But now I can give them hope by sharing with them online."
Looking back on their suffering and persecution, Simin says, "Jesus is worth the cost. In the journey of my life, I experienced persecution a lot, but I always witnessed God at work!"
*Adapted from an online article by Open Doors/March 2024