Prayer is requested for Christian converts Nayereh Arjaneh and Qasem Esmaili from Garmsar in North Iran. Nayereh started serving two concurrent five-year sentences in Semnan Prison on 23 December. Her husband Qasem’s prison sentence is on hold while he has cancer treatment.
Article Eighteen reports that Nayereh was arrested alongside her husband at their home on 7 July as part of a group of Christians who had attended Christian training in Turkiye earlier in 2025.
Nayereh was charged with “promoting deviant propaganda and teachings contrary to Islamic law” and sentenced by the Revolutionary Court in Garmsar to five years in prison, a fine of 165 million tomans (around $1,500), two years’ internal exile in Kouhbanan in Kerman province, and a two-year travel ban. Nayereh was also charged with “providing financial and material support to groups affiliated with Zionist Christianity” and sentenced to an additional five years in prison and a fine of 60 million tomans (around $500). She was acquitted of a separate charge of “insulting religious sanctities.”
Qasem was sentenced separately to three years and six months in prison. His sentence has not yet been enforced as he is undergoing chemotherapy.
Prayer Points
Please pray that:
- God strengthens and encourages Nayereh in prison and that she will establish good relations with fellow prisoners,
- Qasem is healed of his cancer,
- The sentences will be reviewed and the injustice of these sentences recognised and acted upon accordingly,
- Iran will stop the persecution of all religious communities for the peaceful expression of their faith.
