Three Christians in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran have staged hunger strikes in recent months to protest against their detention and cruel treatment.
In the last five months, two men, Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Amir-Ali Minaei, and one woman, Ghazal Marzban, have been among those arrested in Iran for their Christian faith and activity. Suffering broken bones and other medical complaints, they have each protested their situation by refusing food.
Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh is 63 years old and had previously spent almost five years in prison for his faith. Rearrested on 6 February, according to organisation Church in Chains, he began his hunger strike not to protest his personal circumstances but in solidarity with the other Christian converts being persecuted and imprisoned in Iran. After 35 days of the strike, on 17 March, he was found face down in his solitary-confinement cell having suffered a stroke. He still lacks movement in his left-hand side, and it isn’t known how many more years he will remain behind bars. Naser movingly ended his hunger strike by quoting John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.
Evin Prison. {{Source: irannewsupdate.com}}
Amir-Ali Minaei, aged 31, has been in Evin Prison since December 2022 and is serving a sentence of three years and seven months for establishing a house church. He began his hunger strike on 12 April to protest his mistreatment – he was denied access to a telephone, had already suffered a fractured bone in his right leg and developed a heart condition which charity Article 18 reports is “understood to have been caused directly by the stress he was placed under during his initial detention.” He ended the strike shortly afterwards, having been given limited use of a telephone.
Similarly, Catholic convert Ghazal Marban, 41 years of age, went on hunger strike in the woman’s ward of Evin Prison in late December 2024. She was protesting her continued detention – while she was released after two months in January 2025, she faces a further four months in prison and 74 lashes if any further offence is committed within the next five years.
Life in Iran is becoming increasingly dangerous. This is true for women, with the government employing the use of apps and drones to catch those flouting the Islamic State’s strict dress code. It is also increasingly true for Christian converts – with Christians being set higher bails and given longer prison sentences (see article in en March 2025).
Article 18 reports that 166 Christians were arrested last year, an increase from the 134 arrested in 2022.
