5/20/2025 United States (International Christian Concern) — Artemis Ghasemzadeh, an Iranian-Christian convert who fled persecution in Iran, has less than three weeks to find a country that will grant her asylum.

Her humanitarian visa expires on June 7. If she isn’t granted asylum before then, she could be returned to Iran, where she will likely face extreme persecution for leaving Islam.

Today, International Christian Concern (ICC) released an emergency petition calling on governments worldwide to grant asylum to Ghasemzadeh, who is in Panama; her brother, Shahin, who is detained in Texas; and several other Iranian-Christian refugees.

The petition also asks the country or countries that do grant them asylum to facilitate their safe resettlement and provide each Iranian-Christian refugee access to legal counsel, medical care, and support as they integrate into a secure, new life.

Ghasemzadeh’s journey began months ago when she fled Iran with her brother, first to Dubai and then to Mexico, where they hired a smuggler to take them into the United States.

The siblings were detained together for five days in San Diego and then separated: Ghasemzadeh to Panama with other refugees, and her brother to a Houston detention facility, where he remains.

Ghasemzadeh spent a month at an unsanitary camp near the Darién Gap jungle, choosing to sleep outdoors, before moving to a hotel in Panama City with UNICEF support.

She is now staying with two Christian families from Iran and asylum-seekers from China, Vietnam, and Pakistan. They were initially given 30 days to leave the country but received a two-month reprieve.

Ghasemzadeh and her brother knew the challenges and risks of their journey. They were caught in the timing and dragnet of changing U.S. immigration policies and executive orders. Still, they were desperate to flee oppression in Iran, where converts to Christianity must hide their faith and worship as part of an underground house church, a growing and loose collection of believers who use apps to connect and support each other. Christian friends were caught and arrested.

Lawyers from New York, Mexico, and Colombia are helping Ghasemzadeh and the other refugees in Panama find a country that will accept them. So far, potential sponsors have fallen through.

Ghasemzadeh recently told ICC she would “rather die” than go back to Iran, knowing the fate that awaits her.

“I have many nightmares now. I don’t have my hometown, I don’t have the USA, and I don’t have a safe country; I don’t know the next step, where should I live … it’s really scary for me,” she told ICC staffers. “It’s a trip where you never come back to your country, and it may be the last time you see all of your family; maybe you can visit your family in the country, maybe not.”

You can read and sign the petition here.

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org.