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ICC Releases Emergency Petition to Help Iranian Christians Seeking Asylum
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.
Bill Inspired by Iranian Christian Refugee Introduced in Congress
5/20/2025 United States (International Christian Concern) — A new bill inspired by the story of Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old Iranian-Christian convert deported four months ago by the Trump administration, was introduced in Congress today.
Representative Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian-American Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, introduced the Artemis Act. The bill would stop the expedited removal of refugees fleeing countries known to persecute Christians and other religious minorities. It would also allow these refugees to claim asylum in a U.S. immigration court.
Ghasemzadeh, now in Panama, is praying and searching for a safe country to accept her before her humanitarian visa expires on June 7. Otherwise, she will be returned to Iran, where she would face extreme persecution for leaving Islam.
Ghasemzadeh’s journey began months ago when she fled Iran with her older brother, Shahin, 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. Other families were separated, too.
“At first, I thought we were going to Texas,” Ghasemzadeh told International Christian Concern (ICC) staffers during a WhatsApp video call last week. “And when we heard Panama, I was like, ‘Is that in the United States?’”
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.
While the Artemis Act would not help Ghasemzadeh or the 10 other Iranian Christians deported with her in February, it would help other Christians who are fleeing extreme persecution.
ICC released an emergency petition for Ghasemzadeh and her brother, Shahin, and several other Iranian-Christian refugees, calling on governments around the world to grant them asylum, facilitate their safe resettlement, and provide them with the support they need to start new lives.
Ghasemzadeh 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 said. “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.”
To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org.
Odisha Christians Increasingly Denied Burial Rights
https://www.persecution.org/2025/05/21/odisha-christians-increasingly-denied-burial-rights/
5/21/2025 India (International Christian Concern) — Last week, villagers in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district opposed the burial of a deceased Christian, claiming a Christian funeral would defile the gods and the land of the village. Authorities were unable to convince villagers to allow the burial, and the body was taken to another location.
Although Christian burials have long been denied in India, these denials are increasingly occurring as a method of persecuting Christians in Odisha.
In addition to finding increases in targeted attacks and other forms of persecution against Christians, three independent investigations conducted in Odisha between March and April pointed to an alarming rise in the number of Christians denied burial rights. The investigations concluded that the absence of state laws allocating burial land for Christians has enabled the trend.
The fact-finding teams, comprised of lawyers, activists, and researchers, visited the Nabarangpur, Gajapati, and Balasore districts to document the various forms of persecution against Christians. They also uncovered repeated instances of forced conversions, police brutality, and institutional failure against Christians.
In Nabarangpur, investigators documented appalling cases of denied Christian burial. In several incidents, bodies were exhumed, desecrated, or forcibly “converted” to Hinduism before burial.
In one case, the body of Saravan Gond, a young Christian man, was dug up and stolen after burial despite an alleged police presence. His family was physically assaulted and forced to flee their homes. To date, nobody knows the status of his remains.
In multiple villages, Christian families were forced to bury loved ones in remote forests or distant cemeteries because local Hindu nationalist groups refused to allow burials within village boundaries. Christian families could only bury their dead in the village if they converted to Hinduism.
One Adivasi Christian family was forced to sign papers claiming they had reconverted to Hinduism to bury a parent. Another woman was denied burial space for her husband because her sons had adopted Christianity, according to the investigations.
What emerges from these three reports is a pattern: Burial has become a site of religious coercion; police and local officials are indifferent or actively complicit; after formal complaints, no action was taken; and tribal identity was misused to justify discrimination.
This amounts to the weaponization of tribal identity by Hindu nationalist groups who equate the Christian faith with a betrayal of culture. They then use that claim to deny Christians burial rights, the report noted.
To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org.
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