ICC Note: Sepideh’s life changed the day her mother called her workplace. She frantically explained that her brother had been arrested for his faith and that she must come come immediately. Sepideh and her brother were both Iranian Christian converts. Scared for her life and for her brothers too, Sepideh went home, bypassing the police station on her way. It was weeks before her or any other family heard news from her brother.

 11/11/2016 Iran (WWM): It was just another day at the office for accountant Sepideh*. The phone rang and Sepideh reached over her desk to answer it, not knowing that this call would be the start of years of worries. “Sepideh, quick!” The voice of her mother sounded nervous. “They arrested your brother and they might come for you next. Please leave your workplace and come home!”

Five years before, Sepideh’s brother Saman had decided to follow Jesus. “At first I thought it was just another one of his strange interests,” Sepideh shares. “But as time passed, I saw how Saman changed. This is how I became interested in Christianity as well.” Sepideh started reading the Bible and the words really spoke to her. Like her brother, she gave her life to Jesus. Brother and sister started to attend a house church together.

All went well until that terrible phone call. “When I heard that my brother had been arrested, I was so afraid that I almost fainted.” Sepideh decided to leave her office, although she wasn’t sure where to go. “My mind was blurred. I remember walking in the streets in the hot summer sun, my body soaked by sweat. I approached the police office, doubting if I should go in and ask about my brother. But when I was almost there, I quickly passed by, too afraid that I would be arrested as well.”

At home Sepideh found her mother. She told Sepideh that Saman had called her. “I have been arrested,” he said. After those words he quickly disconnected. “We had no information, so after careful consideration we decided to go to the police station together.” While Sepideh waited outside, her mother went inside, but came back shaking her head – no information about her son.

That night Sepideh had trouble sleeping. “I was so concerned. About my brother, about what they did to him, about where he was. And I was concerned about our friends arrested alongside him.” But Sepideh also anxiously kept her ears strained for a knock on the door. “I was afraid the police would come and take me as well, or that they would invade our home to find evidence for my brother’s case.”

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