We meet Daria, as we call her here, and other young Christian Iranian girls in a Persian-speaking church in a neighboring country to Iran. All the girls have left Iran, either alone or with their families. They are smartly dressed and westernized. One of the girls speaks good English and can translate for the others.
The young girls talk about the protests in Iran, where women are throwing off Islamic headscarves, cutting their hair and rebelling against clerical rule. The girls tell us: "In Iran, there are many things women are not allowed to do in public. We can't ride bikes, we can't dance, and we have to be covered up."
"Many Iranians are attracted to Jesus. They are fascinated by Jesus' character, his love and gentleness. They are excited about how Jesus stood up to the Pharisees in his time, who imposed many laws on the Jews. And for many Iranians, Jesus' message of forgiveness and love contrasts with the clerical regime in Iran, which also imposes many religious laws on the population."
"But we also have rules," says one of the young girls emphatically. She and the other girls are attending a Bible course organized by the Danish European Mission's project partner Elam. "Becoming a Christian is not choosing a lifestyle with a party culture and sexual morals that you see in Western movies. Being a Christian is following Jesus, not just being a fan of Jesus."
For example, we need to teach the new believers that pornography is unhealthy and that you should not sleep with different
Training is essential for new believers
We also meet a married couple who put the young people's assessments into perspective. The couple teach leaders of underground churches and have themselves been imprisoned in Iran. They speak with enthusiasm about what God is doing in Iran: "Iranians come to Jesus when God touches their hearts. But some live in sin. For example, we need to teach new believers that pornography is unhealthy and that you shouldn't sleep with different people. Some of the new believers have had strong spiritual experiences, but there are basic things they need to learn about being a Christian. Unlike you, Iranians have not grown up in Christian families. We have to teach them everything from scratch, about prayer, about the Bible."
Thus, the underground churches in Iran have a great task in training new believers to evolve from being fascinated by Jesus to following him. And this task is not made any less challenging by the fact that intelligence services can send spies posing as true Christians: "There are examples of infiltration where mosques send spies. That's why we don't invite people to church when we evangelize. We meet them outside for a few months. We want to make sure they are not from the security police. We test the new believers by asking them to evangelize - if they do, they are genuine, if not, they could be spies. Only when we know them do we let them join the church."
Fact: Iranians are turning their backs on clerical rule
- 72 % oppose the requirement for women to wear hijab in public, while only 15 % believe the hijab should be worn in public.
- Despite Iran's constitution stating that the country is a Shiite theocracy, 68 % of the population believe that religious views should be excluded from legislation even if one religion has a parliamentary majority.
- An estimated 800,000 Muslims have converted to the Christian faith. Before the fall of the Shah in 1979, the number was estimated at 500. Church growth has thus taken place under persecution.
- The above was found by Iranian social science researchers from the Gamaan polling institute in the Netherlands, who in 2020 surveyed Iranians' attitudes towards religion via digital platforms.
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