It’s not each day that you simply get to fulfill a brand new buddy who’s an Iranian dissident, a lot much less an Iranian dissident who was sentenced to demise by hanging, and lived to inform about it. However this month, that’s what I used to be privileged to do, spending appreciable time with Marziyeh “Marzi” Amirizadeh, who had arrived in Israel on her first go to.

Marzi was sentenced to demise in Iran for changing to Christianity, a “crime” the Iranians name apostasy. Her books Captive in Iran and Love Journey with God are properly value studying and recount most of the particulars. By means of attending to know her, I additionally obtained to know a lot of the again story that’s not within the ebook, the individual behind the ebook who exhibited super religion and braveness standing as much as the Islamic regime.

“Israel is treasured to me as a Christian as a result of Jesus was a Jew, and that is the land of the prophets and the Bible.”

Marziyeh “Marzi” Amirizadeh

Coming to Israel for the primary time is important for Jews and Christians uniquely. Marzi considers Israel her religious homeland. “Israel is treasured to me as a Christian as a result of Jesus was a Jew, and that is the land of the prophets and the Bible,” she says. “God loves Israel and the Jewish folks, and I like Israel as a result of God loves Israel.” For Marzi, it was a visit she had dreamed about for years – a pilgrimage and religious homecoming.

An unlikely hero, dissident towards the Iranian regime

Marzi is an unlikely hero, and she or he bristles on the suggestion that she is one. She was born the identical 12 months because the Iranian revolution. She grew up in a house with a library of books and magazines that predated the revolution, whose mere possession risked legal punishment. However these supplied a glimpse of life outdoors the Islamic Republic and what life was like within the nation of her start, earlier than her start.

However Marzi additionally grew up as a second-class citizen. As a younger woman, she remembers her brothers attempting to dominate her life, particularly when their father was away, and later incapacitated. Iranian Sharia legislation delegates girls subservient to their fathers, brothers and husbands. Ladies are raised with that actuality; boys are raised, and empowered, that it’s the norm.

This didn’t swimsuit her. She’s vibrant, inquisitive, and one to problem one thing that’s unjust and even doesn’t make sense. She was one of the best scholar in her class, and she or he challenged many strict Iranian Islamic guidelines. She’d ask why Islamic prayers had been solely in Arabic, a language that she didn’t communicate, as if God didn’t perceive different languages. One thing so simple as driving a motorbike turned a problem to Iran’s strict spiritual restrictions.

Marzi started looking for the reality after realizing that the Iranian model of Islam that was compelled upon her, and her society, was not solely oppressive however riddled with lies, even evil.

Finally, Marzi turned to the Christian religion. Doing so in Iran is harmful sufficient. Christians are thought of filthy infidels. However she was not content material to dwell that secretly.

Like many Christians, Marzi shares her religion freely and brazenly. She did as properly at my Shabbat desk, to not evangelize however simply because that’s who she is. Her religion turned her rudder, steering her via difficult and even horrible occasions. It’s inseparable from her identification, what occurred to her, who she turned, and her love for Israel.

Changing into a Christian gave her a private relationship with a God who was good and loving, the polar reverse of the unapproachable god of concern and punishment imposed by the mullahs within the land of her start. Realizing the lies of the regime, Marzi labored to share the reality concerning the regime and the inspiration of her religion. A part of this concerned covertly inserting 20,000 New Testaments in mailboxes all through Tehran and in mosques, even in Iran’s holy metropolis, Qom.

She tells tales of being in the proper place on the proper time, quite a lot of occasions, when somebody was looking for the reality, and she or he was divinely planted to be God’s emissary in a land of evil. Years after leaving Iran, she met one other Iranian household who had additionally develop into Christian, because of being the recipients of Marzi leaving a New Testomony of their mailbox.

Marzi’s undercover actions remained undercover. She was by no means caught and, till she left Iran, these remained secret. She was arrested in 2009, nevertheless, for apostasy – changing from Islam to Christianity. She by no means denied her religion, to not her captors, interrogators, nor even to her choose. 

However she denied being an apostate. She instructed her choose that Islam is one thing compelled on Iranians and isn’t a selection, and that she was not an apostate since she by no means was a Muslim, she didn’t convert from Islam. This earned her the choose’s ire, and he vowed to condemn her to be hanged. A lot for a good trial.

LISTENING TO Marzi, I used to be introduced again to my very own youth advocating for Jewish prisoners within the Soviet Union. We understood then that public strain, particularly on behalf of Prisoners of Zion, was important to stop worse issues from taking place to them. In lots of instances, when the strain on the Soviets via these actions turned a humiliation that they didn’t wish to cope with, the Soviets would free distinguished refuseniks and prisoners.

Due to fast considering instantly after her 2009 arrest, Marzi’s case turned public, first inside her church neighborhood in Iran, after which internationally. Due to worldwide advocacy and strain, Marzi is satisfied that as badly as she was handled, she wasn’t handled worse. Finally, this led to her being freed in a manner that the Iranians may declare that she fled somewhat than finishing up her sentence of demise by hanging.

Nevertheless, regardless of not being bodily tortured in ways in which left bodily bruises, or raped, as is frequent, she suffered no scarcity of psychological torture whereas on the infamous Evin jail. She recounts being locked into an underground cell with no gentle or air, having to sleep on a naked concrete ground with solely a urine-soaked blanket, and understanding that her closest mates in jail had been being tortured and executed as a technique to threaten her. Marzi pauses, unable to talk, as tears roll down her cheeks whereas sharing her tales and reliving the horrors.

Whereas on an innocuous tour of the Christian Quarter, a pillar of any first-time Christian customer’s tour of Jerusalem, Marzi discovered herself struggling a PTSD incident, which she had by no means skilled earlier than. It occurred whereas she was in a dungeon-like construction beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 

When she associated this at my Shabbat desk, she did so along with her attribute nonchalant irony. This was the primary time since her imprisonment in Iran that she had been in a spot that was almost an identical to her cell in Tehran. Her buddy Melissa, who is aware of her properly, associated that she noticed Marzi’s demeanor change, her respiration quickening. Marzi realized it, too. The anxiousness of being in a spot that so equally resembled the cell the place she was held, even whereas free and in Jerusalem, induced her super trauma.

MARZI HAD dreamed about coming to Israel for a while. As a Christian, Israel is important to her in some ways. In each manner, it was a religious pilgrimage. Because the land the place Jesus and the prophets lived, it was exhilarating. She felt at dwelling instantly. Days earlier than her departure for the Holy Land from her dwelling in Atlanta, Georgia, she wept in anticipation. Israel made her really feel alive.

On our first day collectively, touring to an I24 Information interview, Marzi joked about being arrested once more and, if that had been to occur, now she would certainly be tried as an Israeli spy. The irony of this was twofold, for the reason that Iranians would certainly do it, however as a girl born in Iran, even along with her US passport, her arrival raised eyebrows.

Like several traveler to Israel, particularly flying on El Al, Marzi was questioned at size earlier than her flight, and upon arrival. In the identical manner she joked about being arrested and tried as a spy, with a touch of irony primarily based in actuality, she relates how upon arrival she was requested to go to a room off the passport management space. A uniformed girl requested if she had ever been again to Iran since she left, clearly searching for somebody with sick intent. Marzi merely acknowledged that she had been tried and sentenced to demise by hanging, and that it could not be secure for her to return.

Instantly after leaving the airport, Marzi went to the Western Wall. “It was arduous to imagine I used to be truly in Jerusalem. I used to be so drained, nevertheless it was so thrilling. I simply began praying.

“There’s an excellent spirit you possibly can really feel when surrounded by people who find themselves additionally praying with pure intentions. I felt God’s presence deeply. The nation, folks and the historical past are treasured to me.”

Shabbat was additionally a robust expertise. It was her first time observing Shabbat and the importance of the day of relaxation. I didn’t understand it on the time, however her first Shabbat meal was at my dwelling. “I had by no means been in a state of affairs the place a household gathers collectively, eats collectively, prays collectively and is dedicated to that each week. It’s honorable as a household and to God.”

She famous that generally there isn’t a relaxation within the hectic tempo of life, like being a machine, and folks put on themselves down. She was impressed seeing every thing closed. She was impressed when, on Shabbat morning, she went to the café that she typically frequented, solely to see that it was closed. “Seeing the entire nation and folks resting was inspiring.”

Later that day, she went to Bloomfield Park overlooking the Outdated Metropolis, the place she sat by herself, prayed and loved the serenity. As she sat, two Jewish girls approached and obtained to know her. They defined Shabbat and prayed for her, studying Psalm 20. Marzi was touched that one of many girls cried.

Her final day in Israel was on Holocaust Remembrance Day. She wept visiting Yad Vashem, attempting to understand the homicide of six million Jews, the evil and brainwashing that was behind it, and why extra Christians didn’t defend the Jews. All through the memorial, Marzi regarded into the eyes of numerous photos of Jews who had been murdered, and she or he wept. 

She was confronted with a actuality about her personal religion that she by no means knew: Not solely did individuals who referred to as themselves Christians conceive and implement the Last Answer, however tens of thousands and thousands stood idly by, permitting the Jews to be massacred, and even taking part within the atrocities. Coming to religion in Iran, she had no thought of the church’s historical past of persecuting Jews. This induced her super misery, including to the incomprehensible persecution and mass homicide of the Jews.

Marzi’s go to additionally included Passover, which she obtained to have a good time, studying extra issues concerning the Jewish basis of her personal religion, and questioning why extra Christians don’t find out about Jewish custom. She wept over the terrorist execution of Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee, murdered and buried whereas she was visiting. Driving by the scene of a terrorist stabbing assault in Gush Etzion, she grappled aloud about how and why it’s that the Jews, God’s chosen folks, are endlessly attacked.

Her complete go to to Israel left Marzi feeling deeply related to the folks and the tradition.

AS MUCH as Marzi wished to return to Israel to be uplifted spiritually, from the outset she was decided to share her story and let Israelis know that they and the Iranian folks have the identical enemy – the Iranian regime. She introduced this message to common Israelis and authorities leaders via a number of media appearances and interviews. She says most Iranians don’t hate Israel, and she or he desires to be a catalyst to revive the nice and cozy relations that used to exist between Israel and Iran. She believes that day is coming.

Marzi is bound that the Islamic regime is on its final legs, mentioning that the protests in Iran – spearheaded by girls resisting Iran’s morality police, who hold girls and women subjugated – have continued for the reason that killing of Mahsa Amini final September. The truth is, the protests widened, indicating that Iranians are now not keen to dwell beneath the evil of the Islamic regime. Marzi is satisfied of that and is praying that before later Iranians will take again their nation.

If she may, Marzi can be within the streets of Tehran and different Iranian cities, becoming a member of the protests and rescuing Iran from the evil regime that has managed the nation of her start, since her start. Her perception in and advocating for ladies in Iran is just not new. With the Islamic observe of “legalizing” prostitution via a system of momentary wives, Marzi took on this pillar of immorality whereas in Iran, serving to girls notice not solely that they had been getting used however in a manner that was morally fallacious.

What does Marzi wish to inform Iranians about Israel? “I would like them to know the reality. Most Iranians don’t hate Israel; they simply don’t know the fact.” Increasingly Iranians are realizing that Israel is just not their enemy however the Iranian regime is. Now we have that in frequent. She desires all Iranians to know that.

Marzi emphasizes the shared values, tradition and even historical past, going again to Persian rulers Cyrus and Darius. “These Persian leaders helped return the Jews to Israel to rebuild the nation and Jewish honor. They understood that the Jewish folks had been chosen by God. 

“Most Iranians don’t know the historical past, about Esther and Mordechai and their tombs in Iran. It can take some work to undo the evil brainwashing by the regime,” she says. However she sees that taking place and needs to be a constructive voice and part of making that occur.

Her story is just not notably Jewish, and she or he shares extra on the Inspiration from Zion podcast dialog. However she is deeply related to Israel and the Jewish folks. Together with her journey that included the Passover vacation, once we have a good time our liberation from slavery in Egypt, it’s notably poignant to share her story. As a result of freedom is just not free; it comes with a worth, and generally torture and threats of demise. 

To listen to extra from Marzi, try the Inspiration from Zion Podcast: www.charismapodcastnetwork.com/present/inspirationfromzion

The author is president of the Genesis 123 Basis and RunforZion.com, constructing bridges between Jews and Christians. FirstPersonIsrael@gmail.com.

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