Iranian Christian converts and asylum-seekers Sam Khosravi and Maryam Falahi request prayer after an interview with Turkish immigration officials on 2 June. During the interview, the officials questioned whether Sam and Maryam have legal custody over their adopted daughter Lydia in view of a previous order from an Iranian family court demanding that Lydia be removed from the care of Christian convert adoptive parents.
Sam and Maryam are originally from Bushehr and were unable to have their own children. In 2018 they adopted Lydia, a 3-month-old baby with congenital issues, and were granted custody by the Welfare and Social Services in Iran. After Sam and Maryam were arrested during a raid on a house church in July 2019, they were convicted on propaganda charges related to membership of their house church in June 2020 and Sam was sentenced to a year in prison, two years of exile from his home city, and two years of work prohibition, and Maryam was fined the equivalent of $400 and dismissed from her job as a hospital nurse.
Following this conviction, in July 2020 the family court in Bushehr ruled that since Lydia was “Muslim” in her documentation (although her parentage is unknown) and the adoptive parents Christian, custody should be anulled on the basis of religious law, not constitutional law, and the infant removed from their care. The judge appeared sympathetic to the situation of the family but was under pressure from the Ministry of Intelligence to order Lydia’s removal from her home.
Fearing for Lydia’s welfare, the family fled Iran in 2020 and applied for international protection in Türkiye.
As asylum-seekers, the family had an interview with Turkish immigration on 2 June 2026 and the issue of legal custody over Lydia (8) arose for the first time. The Turkish officials said that Sam and Maryam need to have the 2020 ruling from the Bushehr family court annulled. Sam pointed out that it is a Sharia-based religious court but the officials insisted that they go to a Turkish court – which has no jurisdiction over the decision from the Bushehr family court – and threatened that Turkish social welfare could remove Lydia. This has revived the anxieties that the family could be split, and Lydia left without a family and home.
Prayer Points
Please pray that:
- God gives wisdom to Sam and Maryam in how to handle the issue and peace and assurance that they are in His hands,
- The Turkish immigration officials will seek viable solutions to the complex questions regarding the legal custody of Lydia,
- The family will be able to permanently resettle and establish a secure home in a third country.
