“Going to this seminar was very stressful for me on my way. The Iranian police can stop everybody very easy and they did. It caused me a lot of stress when they checked my papers. My heart was pounding and I tried to stay calm. Then they checked my bags. And I did bring my Bible. If they would have found it, they probably would have caught me and arrested me. Fortunately there was no problem…” shares Ebrahim who attends his second Discipleship Training in half a year. On the last day of the conference, Ebrahim was baptized, together with three others of the group.
Upon the question what would happen if they had arrested him, he was silence for a while. Then he continued: “Probably they would have questioned me and tortured if necessary, in order to say the names of my Christian friends. Then they would have asked me to give the name of the pastor in order to get the highest persons in the network.
We have to be very careful. The teacher instructed us not to bring our telephone, everything is being checked. If we want to speak about this seminar, we speak with codes. Or when we speak on the phone we only say what is necessary and prefer making an appointment. We only speak face to face if we really have to discuss something. Maybe it is strange for you, but this is daily life for us,” shares Ebrahim.
Daily Life
“Let me share more about our daily life,” says Ebrahim. “The government is strong and can do everything they want. The people cannot do anything, but the police can do everything and knows everything. If they want to, they know what I do from 7 o’clock in the morning until 12 o’clock in the evening. They check telephone, email and SMS text. Sometimes this is very stressful, but I think I am used to it now. Every day I have this problem and after some time it becomes normal. We have to think about everything we do. Let me give you some examples about actions of the police to keep the pressure on us:
Be aware in communication and relationships
If your life is exactly like the government wants you to live, then you can have a fairly easy life. But if your life becomes more complex and you have to protect yourself, so that the government does not know everything about you, you have to become very, very careful and aware of what they can do. You have to know what to say on the phone, via SMS text or email. Also meeting people can be dangerous and you really have to know people. If I meet a Christian brother for the first time, I cannot say everything, because I never know who he really is. Therefore our contacts are very shallow. We just stay at the surface and trust has to grow. Gradually the relation grows deeper.
Parties
What is normal for you in the free world and not for us is for example having a party with your friends. Organizing a party, even a birthday party may cause you problems. Then the police come with several cars and just arrest some or all visitors and take them to jail for one or two nights.
Playing loud music
I spent two nights in jail with three friends of mine. While driving through Teheran, the police stopped us. They arrested us with the charge that we were driving around at night with opened windows and playing loud music. It was at night indeed, but we did not do anything wrong. We did not drink alcohol, drove just normal and the car of my friend does not even have speakers in his car!
This had nothing to do with me being Christian, but just with the police trying to force respect. It just is one big joke. I laugh about it now, because my country just is one big joke.
Clothing
Sometimes they are very strict on the clothes, especially what women wear. But also for men there are restrictions. We would love to walk around in our shorts, but in Iran, we cannot do this. We also have to wear long trousers and shirts with the sleeves at least over the elbow.
Church
Iranians can go to the church, and even Muslim background believers sometimes do. I went to the church one time, but when I came out, a policeman took a picture of me and other people. With the picture they can try to find your face and find more info about you. My friend was stopped one day he came out of church. They asked questions, like what are you doing here, are you Muslim or are you Christian? What is your family name and more questions like that. For the next 6 months he was checked by the police. Where he would go or what he would do. During these months he did not contact his Christian friends and did not went to other Christians homes.
So these are some of the examples of the pressure of the Iranian police on the Iranian people. This is not a free country, but it is a totalitarian system.”
Training
About the training Ebrahim shares the following: “This Discipleship Training is very good. All of us are young and we want to speak about problems us, as young Christians face in our daily life. The teachers address exactly the right subjects, for example ‘relationships’ and ‘not having sex until you are married’. Yesterday it was about being Christian in the society and politics. Also they take us separately, boys with man teachers and the girls with women as teacher. Several months ago I also joined training from Open Doors. They taught about very good subjects then, mostly about the problems in daily life. It is very useful to me and it really helped me a lot in my way with God. Most of us have a Muslim background. We don’t know the general background of Jesus and Christianity. I did not grow up in a Christian society, so we really need to learn many basics.”
Politics
At the end we asked Ebrahim about his feelings according to the political situation in the country: “During revolution day many people were in the streets and also 8 months ago. The first day people wanted to go to the streets just to be happy, dancing and speaking with each other. In a normal day this would not be possible, but now they felt free. Then in the bigger cities people showed their disagreement with the outcome of the elections. They did not accept the results that Mussavi would have lost. They want another revolution. The government shot people down and arrested some persons. Then people got scared to go to the street and afraid to be sent to jail. So now they cannot do anything anymore. At first I went to the streets, but after one week it became too dangerous, so I stayed at home. A friend of mine was arrested during one of the demonstrations and now for several months we did not contact her and she did not contact me. We decided not to have contact until she says it might be possible to contact her again because of security reasons. Generally I would say after six months it is possible to contact each other again. But then still… you don’t know, you really don’t know if it is safe.”
Ebrahim continues: “I think that Ahmadinejad will complete his new gained 4 years. The people are scared and don’t want to risk the safety of themselves nor of the safety of their family. The authorities are very strict these days. Further there is not really one idea or vision for how it should be changed. People are too much scattered all over the country and individuals in their vision. They have no special idea and no real power. People are really scared.
I did not have had problems with the government during the elections. In the past my father never went to vote. But now, for the first time in 25 years my father went to vote again. He did not want Ahmadinejad to return as president. So he voted, but no result. And there are many more examples. When I voted I spoke to an elder woman who said the same. She did not vote for 30 years since the change of government from the shah to the Islamic regime, but now she voted. Please pray for a change in the country and in the heart of our people.”
