Sentenced to Death in Iran, She Believes the Muslim Nation Can Turn to Jesus, ‘Export Missionaries’ Instead of Terrorism

Marziyeh Amirizadeh says there is only one country in the Middle East that she believes could become a Christian nation—Iran.  

“I know my people, I know their heart, and know how much they are tired of Islam,” Amirizadeh told The Daily Signal. “And Iran can be a country, a Christian country in the future, hopefully to, instead of exporting terrorism, to be a place to export missionaries to other Middle Eastern countries, to other Muslims to find the truth through Jesus.” 

Amirizadeh was born in southern Iran, but later moved to Iran’s capital of Tehran. Growing up, Amirizadeh says she had a wonderful relationship with her father, and her parents never taught her about radical Islam at home, but when she began going to school at the age of 7, “the system of brainwashing” began. 

“When you go to school, they force you to pray Namaz,” a ritual Islamic prayer, Amirizadeh said. “They forced you to practice Islamic rules, they forced you to … say, ‘Death to America and death to Israel.’”  

Students are required to take a sort of theology class in schools across Iran, Amirizadeh explained, describing the course as “very radical Muslim.”  

Amirizadeh has vivid memories of her teacher describing ways in which God would torture them when they died if they disobeyed Islamic rule. 

While the claims her teacher made were scary, even at a young age, Amirizadeh says she had trouble believing God would do such horrible things to the people He created, because her father was a loving man and taught her about love and respect.  

Amirizadeh did practice Islam for a couple years, but was always seeking to know the truth about God. When she was 18, Amirizadeh says, her “long journey” of coming to know Jesus as her Lord and savior began with a dream in which God “showed His love.”  

A few years later, when Amirizadeh was still searching to know more about God, a friend who had converted to Christianity told her about Jesus. She got a Bible and began attending a home church and ultimately made the choice to follow Jesus and was baptized in the Holy Spirit.  

Amirizadeh tells the full story of her conversion in her second book, “A Love Journey with God: From Pain to Love, Captivity to Freedom, Iran to the U.S.,” released in 2022.  

After accepting Jesus as her savior, Amirizadeh began to tell others about the Lord and sought out opportunities to learn about Christ, including spending seven months in Turkey studying theology. When Amirizadeh returned to Iran, she and her friend, Maryam Rostampour, started a ministry secretly distributing Bibles.  

“In three years, we distributed 20,000 Bibles in Tehran and a few other cities, and then we got the idea of starting home churches among women, among young people,” she said.  

Eventually, authorities discovered the Christian evangelism Amirizadeh was engaged in, and both she and Rostampour were arrested.  

A judge sentenced Amirizadeh to death by hanging for her crime of apostasy and refusal to convert to Islam. She and her friend spent 259 days in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in Tehran and faced severe interrogations and persecution.

Inside the walls of the prison, the two women did not know that Christians in other nations had learned of their imprisonment and were waging a large pressure campaign against the Iranian regime to free Amirizadeh and Rostampour. 

Even Pope Benedict XVI got involved in the case and sent a letter to the Iranian regime calling for the Amirizadeh’s release.  

After spending months in prison, the two friends were released and told they would have another court date in six months. After being released and learning of the international pressure Iran was facing due to her case, Amirizadeh believed the regime had released her in hopes she would flee the country and then claim she had escaped.  

“And we prayed, and we thought, ‘No, we are not going to leave, because that’s a trick,’” Amirizadeh said, not wanting the regime to be able to claim she had escaped.  

When it was time to return to court, Amirizadeh and Rostampour packed their things and were prepared “to go back to prison even if they wanted to execute us.”  

In court, the judge announced he was releasing Amirizadeh and Rostampour, but warned them that authorities could not protect them from Iranians who might target them for their Christian faith.  

“You may die in an accident, your house may catch on fire,” Amirizadeh says she remembers the officials telling her in court. Following these warning, Amirizadeh and Rostampour decided it was best to leave Iran, and first went to Turkey for nine months. In 2011, Amirizadeh moved to America and published her first book, “Captive in Iran,” with Rostampour in 2014.  

Today, Amirizadeh continues to share her story and remains hopeful that the underground church in Iran is growing. Iranians are tired of Islam, she said.  

“I think the only good thing about this evil regime is that they showed the true face of Islam to Iranian people,” Amirizadeh says of the current regime, adding that is why she believes so many Iranians are ready to turn “their back to Islam and are ready to give their hearts to Jesus.” 

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