God will not forget me
Saeede’s Story
I came to the Tab four months ago when I met Karen and she invited me to come on Sunday. As I wanted to come to church to worship God. The church family God has shown me love and affection. I will always remember my baptism here at the Tab on 11 September 2022. I was baptised by Pastor Jack, and Fliss.
I was born in a very religious family. My father tired very hard to implement all the rules of Islam in the family, such as prayer, fasting and compulsory hijab. I was only 5 years old when my father said I had to cover my head because the Iman’s had said that girls needed to get use to the hijab before the age of 9. According to the laws of Islam, music is forbidden. Yes, we were not allowed to listen to music. All the Laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran are taken from Islamic Sharia, they are all generally anti women, even the dowry for the woman is half that of a man. As I woman I was forbidden by Islamic laws to ride a bicycle. Even at school we were forced to pray congregational prayer as these are also part of the rules of Islam.
Once as a teenager, I told my father that I no longer wanted to be Muslim, I wanted to choose my own religion. My father wrapped his arms around. He squeezed my neck and said “if you say such a thing again, you will be silent because leaving Islam means becoming apostate and the punishment for this in Islam is death. From then on, I was afraid to talk about the issue.
Once when I was walking in the street, I went to Ershad patrol, which is the same police that women who wear hijab very much. They don’t want to arrest me like a thief and force me into a van and, In order to humiliate me even more, they put a placard around my neck (the criminals don’t have to wear this) with my name and surname written on it. they took a picture of me in this placard. When released my sister brought me a long coat and I wore it. Later, I wanted to participate in a concert because I am a member of a choir in Iran. I was there, a letter came my name was deleted as someone who wears the hijab badly, because of this I went to a commitment letter and signed that I would not wear a short manta anymore. My whole childhood and adolescence passed like this.
Something happened that made me get tired of Islam forever and leave Islam. It was when I realised my father had married another woman. At first, I didn’t believe him but when I asked, he said “yes, I did it because in Islam it is permissible to have 4 wives”. I didn’t even want to hear the name of Islam anymore, because it broke my mother’s heart. I felt like God had completely forgot me. I had a friend in the same choir named Shiva, she was different from all my other friends. She was always kind and did whatever she could to help others. I knew that she had separated from her husband, he took her daughter and his ex-wife with him because the right of custody of a child in Islam is with the husband. She said, “you and I are in pain”. She told me that her ex-husband is also because in Islamic law it is permissible to have 4 wives. When Shiva wanted to divorce him, it bothered him a lot, because the right to divorce in Iran according to law belongs to men.
The words that Shiva told me that day calmed me down she said that all religions are not like Islam. Of course, God will not forget you. I didn’t know that Shiva had become a Christian until then. I was thirsty for a religion that would bring love, affection, and peace.
The day Shiva told me she had become a Christian and given me a small bible as a gift, she said “God, Jesus Christ wants you as one of his children”. Every day that passed, she talked to me more and more about the Lord Jesus Christ. I felt more relaxed. I felt lost but now found. I believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ. I am sure that God will never forget me.
