US calls on Iran to release Catholic convert, other ‘wrongfully detained’ prisoners

The most severe penalties in Iran for religious ‘crimes’ are reserved for those who convert from Islam to another religion such as Christianity.

(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. State Department called for the immediate release of “wrongfully detained” prisoners in Iran, including a Catholic convert who went on a hunger strike a few months ago. “We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the people of Iran and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political and wrongfully detained prisoners, including those facing persecution for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms,” the State Department declared in a statement on Thursday.

The plea comes amid new military strikes against Iran in response to its attacks on commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s imprisonment of Catholic convert Ghazal Marzban, 42, highlights the country’s persecution of Christians. She was sentenced to almost 10 years in Iran’s notorious Evin prison for practicing her faith, Iranian experts told Fox News.

Her charges include “propaganda against the state” and “gathering and collusion against national security.” Upon her arrest, which was not explained to Marzban, her Bible and other Christian literature were confiscated. She was reportedly pressured to confess that her Bible and other Christian literature had been used for evangelization, but she denied this, saying they were for her personal use only.

Marzban began a hunger strike on May 25 in protest of her sentence, and by early June it was reported that she had gone a week without food and her health had “significantly deteriorated.” Her current condition is unknown. Marzban’s husband suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and for this reason, Article 18 executive director Mansour Borji said her sentencing was in fact “a sentence for both of them.”

Like the vast majority of nations in world history, Iran remains a confessional state, privileging or protecting its state religion, in this case Islam. It enforces threats to this religion as, for example, “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” While Christian evangelization, proselytizing, or distributing Christian materials such as Bibles to the Muslim majority in the local language of Farsi is strictly prohibited, the most severe penalties for such religious crimes are reserved for those who convert from Islam to another religion such as Christianity.

Last July, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued an updated report highlighting the “Islamic Republic of Iran’s continued violations of freedom of religion or belief both domestically and abroad.” “For exercising their right of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including for changing their religion or belief, Christian converts from Islam face grave danger to their personal safety in Iran,” the report reads. It cites examples of two people who were sentenced to 12 years in jail after a house raid revealed they were in possession of Bibles.