Looking back at the Iranian martyrs
"They ran with perseverance the race that was set before them, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of their faith."
Anglicans Attacked in 1980
When the Islamic Revolution swept through Iran in 1979, fanatics started to attack the small Anglican 
Church. The priest in Shiraz, Rev Sayyah (pictured left), welcomed two men claiming they wanted to know more about Christianity. They cut his throat.
In Isfahan, early in the morning armed men broke into the apartment of Bishop
Dehqani and his wife, stood at the end of their bed and fired five bullets at the Bishop's head. Four missed and one went into his wife's hand. The Bishop then had to attend a conference abroad. While he was away, fanatics kidnapped his son, Bahram (pictured right), drove him to the city outskirts, and shot him dead.
Two English missionaries and other church leaders, including the Rt Rev Iraj Mottahedeh, were accused of being spies and imprisoned for many months.
Reverend Soodmand, 1990
Once the Revolution had become Iran's government, it was important to give an impression of respect for other religions, so the Church began to breathe a little more freely again. However, there were still fanatics who exercised power. In 1990 Rev Soodmand from the Assemblies of God Church in Mashad was imprisoned for preaching Christ. He was hung. His family was never allowed to see his body.
The Martyrs of 1994
In 1986 the Muslim-born Mehdi Dibaj, a former university lecturer in the northern city of Babol, was 
imprisoned for refusing to renounce Christ and return to Islam. He remained in prison for nine years and was then officially sentenced to death for apostasy. He was due to be executed in December 1993. In response, the leader of the Assemblies of God Churches in Iran, Bishop Haik Hovsepian-Mehr (pictured right), alerted the world to the imminent execution and without any explanation Mehdi Dibaj was released. However, in January 1994, Haik Hovsepian-Mehr suddenly went missing. A few days later his son was called to the mortuary to identify his father's body.
Mehdi Dibaj (below) enjoyed a few months of freedom. On June 23rd he was walking to attend his daughter's 
birthday celebrations when he was kidnapped, driven to some woods on the outskirts of 
Tehran, and then stabbed to death. A few days later, Rev Tateos Michaelian (right), the leader of the Presbyterian Church, was shot dead in an apartment by unknown assailants. Rev Michaelian was a scholar who had translated over 60 books into Persian. On the death of Bishop Haik Hovsepian-Mehr he had taken over as the chairman of the council of all the Iranian churches. It is though that his brave leadership in these difficult days incited the fanatics to kill him.
'Ravanbakhsh,' 1996
The last martyr was Rev 'Ravanbakhsh' Yusefi, who pastored the church in Sari - the same city where 
Mehdi Dibaj spent most of his imprisonment. He and his wife were also a great support to the Soodmand family after Rev. Soodmand's exection. In September 1996, 'Ravanbakhsh' (literally, peaceful spirit) was found hanging from a tree in the woods near his home. Some tried to argue that he had committed suicide, but other church leaders always refused to confirm this. They are sure he was murdered.
Life is not easy for the church in Iran, but thankfully no more Christian blood has been shed. An, both in Iran and throughout the world, the Iranian Church has grown. What Tertullian said in the 4th Century when the Church faced the fierce wrath of the Roman state still holds true today - "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."