Naghmeh Abedini on Saeed’s Imprisonment: God Counted Us Worthy Enough

ICC Note: Pastor Saeed Abedini remains in an Iranian prison. He’s just one of nearly 50 Christians being held, and there are hundreds more also being detained because of their religious activities. His wife and children continue to speak out calling for his release, but also speaking out to share the story of how these events have driven them to a closer walk with God, and a greater awareness of speaking about the abuse of basic rights in Iran.
By: Stoyan Zaimov
04/08/2014 Iran (Christian Post) – Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of pastor Saeed Abedini who is serving eight years in prison in Iran for his Christian faith, has said that God has chosen her family and her husband for the ordeal they are going through in order to reach people in despair.
“The Lord has counted our family worthy enough to send Saeed to a dark place that he would be able to share with people who are in complete despair,” Abedini said in a testimony to persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern in its April 2014 magazine.
She told the watchdog that while in prison, her husband has seen “so many give their hearts to Christ.”
The pastor, who was arrested in Iran in July 2012 while working on an orphanage project, was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison for “threatening the national security.”
The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents Naghmeh Abedini and the couple’s two children in the U.S., and several other Christian organizations have led a campaign calling for his release, and have accused Iranian authorities of violating Abedini’s human rights by refusing to give him the surgery that he needs. The pastor has suffered several beatings while in prison and last month was moved to a hospital to receive better care.
Naghmeh has spoken before Congress and the U.N., testifying about her husband’s plight and calling on the international community to press the Islamic republic for his release, while trying to stay strong for her children at the same time.
This has been very hard, but spiritually it is the best time in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said.
“My new reality forced me out of my self-consumed life,” she continued. “I realized I had a right to speak out for those who are being silenced, to speak for the Christians, for the Jews, for the Baha’i, and other fellow human beings who are being imprisoned simply because of their beliefs.”
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