00:05:27.860So what happened was Persian Empire was one of the largest empires back in the day
00:05:35.240when Cyrus the King in the Bible actually founded Persian Empire.
00:05:40.640And so the monarchy for 2,600 years of monarchy turned into theocracy almost overnight when the revolution happened in Iran.
00:05:52.180And people, it was actually the desires of the people for this Islamic revolution because they thought that, you know, the king was doing them ugly and was, you know, using the rich resources of the country for their own goods and benefits.
00:06:19.620And, you know, they don't really do justice for the people.
00:06:26.400And so they thought that the Islamic revolution, a religion can save them.
00:06:32.120Because back then it was very secular in Iran.
00:06:35.160Like the secularism was prevalent and no religion was really being practiced as like the dictatorship, Islamic government.
00:06:47.700people had the freedom wasn't being enforced there were a lot of muslims there but it wasn't
00:06:53.300really a matter of morality police coming around and making sure that you're obeying all the laws
00:06:59.440right and then the islamic revolution happened and they said nope this is now a matter of this
00:07:04.420state we're going to make sure you abide by all of these laws yes and so you're um as someone that
00:07:11.420was born after the revolution um they just give you a religion like i was born as a muslim i didn't
00:07:19.980have the choice to um or the freedom to choose my own religion i am automatically a muslim if i was
00:07:27.720born after the revolution so that's that's something that not only is it being enforced but
00:07:33.660it's being impressed upon, like it's being forced on you.
00:07:41.940And so anyways, that's how it turned into theocracy through the revolution.
00:07:50.260And people thought that religion or Islam can save them.
00:07:54.940But then after 40 plus years now, they realized that Islam is not the solution, but the very
00:08:03.100And so most Iranians are rejecting Islam now, even though a lot of people think that, you know, Iran is an Islamic country because of what the brutality and the cruelty that Iranians have been faced with because of Islam.
00:08:27.320A lot of them have turned into different religions.
00:08:32.320Most of them are seeking other religions.
00:08:36.680They think gospel is something that they need to cling on.
00:08:43.540Right now, people's hearts and minds are ready for something new
00:08:48.720because they're sick and tired of Islam and what has been doing to the people of Iran.
00:08:55.620When you were living in Iran as a child, learning about Islam, you mentioned the morality police, but what else were you told about Islam, about women in Islam? I know a little bit about Islamic beliefs, but I'm interested in what children are taught from an early age.
00:09:18.180Yes. So from early age, they taught us in school that Islam is the only religion that can get to God.
00:09:31.020Every other religion is false except Islam.
00:09:36.560And basically they indoctrinate that type of theology into the children's minds to where everyone else is in the wrong except Muslims.
00:09:53.120And so they put the fear and hatred inside of children's hearts towards Americans who are not Muslims, towards Israel, especially because they're, you know, they're Zionist and in their belief that, you know, they have to be wiped off the map and they're the enemy and all that.
00:10:22.900And so as children in school, we don't know why this hatred exists or I didn't even know.
00:10:30.300And I just knew that this was the way of life and it was ingrained in me until I moved to America.
00:10:38.960And like I now have a totally different worldview, but it was definitely it is still happening in Iran.
00:10:47.820They indoctrinate their own beliefs and their own mindset in the hearts and the minds of the children to really brainwash them.
00:11:07.260And do women and girls, I mean, I know you've already described kind of the violence that they have to endure.
00:11:13.420But can you tell us a little bit more about what it's like to be a woman or a girl in Iran?
00:11:17.820Yes. So women in Iran are treated as second class citizens. The women really struggle with their identity in Iran because it is it is more about what can a woman do for a man as opposed to who is she?
00:12:00.860You know, one of the things that's really bothersome and it irritates me every time I talk about it is that a woman's testimony in court is worth half of a man's, which really works against women for, imagine, family laws, custody laws.
00:12:28.820a lot of times women are subject to advances to their male superior at work. And so imagine if
00:12:41.880a woman is exploited at work, her own testimony is counted as half of a man's. So they don't even
00:12:50.660listen to her because her testimony is worthless it's half of a man's and so um that's really um
00:12:58.480that's that's a practice that's happening inheritance law are favored towards men um men
00:13:05.600get double portion of whatever the inheritance is um when even though women in iran are very
00:13:15.160very smart very intelligent like um the number of enrollment at universities um um are twice
00:13:22.220women are twice as as many as men's so women are allowed to go to university they are okay yes
00:13:28.660they are allowed to earn education however only 19 percent of them um are reported to be in the
00:13:37.740workforce. Okay. And the gender gap is around 40%. So men earn for the same job 40% more than
00:13:48.180women do. And so it's just, they do face economic challenges a lot. And I think the system is set
00:13:58.820up to where women have absolutely no or very little autonomy. And they want women to be
00:14:07.760dependent upon men for financial gains, for financial necessity. And one thing that, one
00:14:16.500practice is, of course, child marriages. The legal age to marry for a woman is 13, which
00:14:27.680leads to child marriages for men, for guys is 15. And so that right there, it just leads to
00:14:38.560physiological challenges, psychological challenges for women from early age. Then
00:14:45.260the workforce issues, because of all the, you know, they're vulnerable at workplaces. And so
00:14:55.160they're being taken advantage of and all that. And so one of the practices in Iran is called
00:15:00.920temporary marriages. And what happens is temporary marriage is really a loophole for
00:15:10.340legalized prostitution in Iran. And what happens is it's a period of time that a man and a woman
00:15:18.960agree upon to um be legally married so that um you know the man could sexually um have relationship
00:15:29.960with with the woman without any implications um and they have made it legalized for a certain
00:15:38.100period of time for a certain amount of money um it could be two hours it could be a week
00:15:44.920It could be months, whatever they determine it is.
00:15:49.520But they have legalized it so men could have the freedom to have sex with other women with no consequences or implications of the marriage.
00:15:59.280And what happens if the woman gets pregnant?
00:16:05.540In fact, it's funny you mentioned that.
00:16:09.040We had a testimony that came to our ministry about the same thing.
00:16:12.460um woman gets pregnant um the the woman um wants to keep the baby the man says no it's my reputation
00:16:23.720you have to abort the baby um then um he brings in an arab guy to sell the 11 year 11 days old
00:16:34.300baby to an Arab. And the woman flees and goes in hiding and all that. And in one of the places that
00:16:44.320she was hiding, they were broadcasting gospel in their own ethnic language, which was one of our
00:16:51.780programming. And she came to faith right then and there. She started praying that he would change
00:16:58.780his mind about selling the baby um and so um she comes to faith she starts you know praying and
00:17:05.660then he comes to faith and they come back together and they turn the temporary marriage into permanent
00:17:11.300marriage and they're they're living happily ever after serving the lord now but um there are
00:17:18.500there are incidences that you know the woman becomes pregnant and they don't want to have
00:17:24.640anything to do with with that it was just very unfortunate you were married young correct yes
00:17:31.620tell me about that so when I was 18 I was introduced to my dad's business partner
00:17:38.480who was 14 years older than me and so in a way this marriage was arranged for me
00:17:47.760Um, and, and the, the string attached to it was the business that, that he was helping my dad to open. And so in a way I was forced by circumstances, um, to, to marry him. Um, I did not like him. I was not attracted to him at all.
00:18:08.360Um, but from the get go, um, he started manipulating, um, me, you know, he exploited me sexually
00:18:18.220before marriage to seal the deal, so to speak, to say, Hey, you know, if I exploit her, she's
00:18:28.800I was, I was, um, very hurt after that, but I felt like I needed to be the savior of my
00:18:36.560family and just keep on going with this with this arranged marriage which turned very toxic
00:18:43.440very abusive on all fronts and was this in the U.S. it was in the U.S. okay so a Muslim man yes came
00:18:52.360to your dad yes and was like yeah I want to marry your daughter and your dad who is was I guess
00:18:58.700strict theologically when it came to Islam thought yeah this is great this is a custom that we need
00:19:03.820to continue. And so that's how that was set up. Absolutely. So growing up, my dad was very,
00:19:11.160very strict. He was very overprotective. And I thought of my dad always as my hero. He was
00:19:20.980always very honoring, honorable. And I thought, you know, if my dad is introducing this guy to me,
00:19:28.500he must be really good at age 18. And it's worth to mention that when I was in Iran, it was a
00:19:37.360societal norm. I had seen and witnessed, you know, young girls being arranged to marry an older man
00:19:48.120who's semi well off. And this was the way of life. You know, I did not think anything of it.
00:19:57.200I didn't even think it was a thing like arranged marriage. Later on, you know, I learned about
00:20:02.900arranged marriages, but I thought this was the culture. This was something that we do as Iranians
00:20:09.320and as Muslims. And so, yeah, he asked for my dad's permission to speak with me and my dad
00:20:14.380arranged that. And he thought that he was doing me a favor. But, you know, it turned south.
00:20:22.380Yeah. So tell me about the beginning of the marriage and how it turned abusive.
00:20:26.100Yes. So from the beginning, the foundation of this relationship was based on fear, intimidation, manipulation. And so going into it, it was very hurtful emotionally because then, you know, my dad's business was always held over my head.
00:20:50.160Like I helped your dad do this and that. And my and he would just use that as, you know, the winning card on me and all that.
00:21:00.120And so he started he started like asserting his dominance and like he wanted to to say, hey, I'm the dominating, you know, figure here in this marriage.
00:21:12.720But you said you were 18. I was 18. And he was in his 30s. Yes. 32.
00:21:16.900Yes. And so he wanted from from the beginning, he wanted to make sure that I know that he's the alpha. He is the guy that dominates. He is his you know, his word is the final say and all that. And all of that is cultural disposition that he also had learned from back from home.
00:21:47.580Sometimes he would accuse me of liking other men so much that it just became the biggest fear of his life.
00:22:00.520And so one time, this actually happened a few times, but one time I remember like as I was sleeping, he started throttling my neck because he had a dream that, you know, I was with another man.
00:22:20.340Like he was very jealous, very controlling.
00:22:23.460I woke up feeling I was being choked because of that.
00:22:27.620And so there were just the physical struggle, the emotional and mental, verbal.
00:22:35.300It was just constant, constant accusations.
00:22:39.460Constantly I was trying to prove myself trustworthy, that he can trust me.
00:22:46.240He can't, you know, we can have a relationship based on trust.
00:22:53.400but he he always would just find other ways to accuse me of different things
00:22:58.900and were you still wearing like a hijab at this point in america okay oh you were not okay so the
00:23:07.480the hijab is only enforced in iran yeah um and like if you're um not a devout muslim you if it's
00:23:16.400not um you know okay so your dad didn't make you do that your husband didn't make you do that we
00:23:22.400were nominal muslim like again you know because we were born into that culture we were known as
00:23:28.220muslims but we weren't really practicing it to a t yeah when did you become a christian did you
00:23:34.760become a christian while you were married um so i became a christian a year after i got married
00:23:40.520okay and that's the story um of me coming to faith because i was you know the relationship
00:23:47.440was very toxic. And I was so depressed at age 18. Back then, I was 19. It was a year after.
00:23:55.940I literally had no hopes for my life. I felt trapped with him because of the way he was
00:24:05.160behaving, the way he was treating me. He wouldn't let me go. He would just, you know,
00:24:10.920manipulate me in every which way possible to keep me in this marriage and I didn't know if I
00:24:18.100wanted to continue education I started going to college he would follow me to college peek through
00:24:24.700the windows of the classroom to see who I was sitting next to and then he would monitor my
00:24:29.040phone afterwards to see who I was talking to and whatnot he was just you know like that and so
00:24:35.840So, you know, it was an outlet for me to go to college and, you know, study and thinking
00:24:43.180that I'm doing something good, a value for my life.
00:24:46.180But then I would come home and he would just make me cry from his accusations and the way
00:25:29.500And when we moved to the U.S., we were in Austin, Texas,
00:25:32.080They came to visit us after so long, and so they had become Christians in Oklahoma, and so they wanted to share the gospel with us as well.
00:25:41.160And so when I went to visit them at my parents' house, they were watching Jesus' film in Farsi, in my parents' living room.
00:25:52.480And so when I went in, I started watching it with them, didn't think anything of it.
00:26:00.500I was so numb to myself. I thought I was betrayed by my own family being put up with this guy and in my marriage, marital issues and all that. I just didn't have any hopes. I was just very aimless, no purpose in my life, didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
00:26:17.960And so I sat there, watched the movie, and got up to leave.
00:26:24.740One of the women there said, Lily, I know you've been through a lot.
00:26:31.220Did you know that when you come to Christ, all your past will be gone, and you will become a new creation in Christ, and everything will become new in Him?
00:26:41.460and that just struck a chord with me because I had been wanting a new fresh start I thought well
00:26:49.040my life had been wasted um I what would it happen if I could have a do-over if I could have a fresh
00:26:57.020start and when she said that I knew the Holy Spirit was speaking through her um and so I didn't know
00:27:04.020back then but I know now that the Holy Spirit was speaking through her because that was the very
00:27:08.620I needed to hear back then. And so when I got up to leave, the daughter of this woman that said
00:27:17.160that to me walked me to the door and said, Lily, I know that things are looking very dark in your
00:27:26.280life and I know you've been struggling, but know that there is hope and Christ can pull you out
00:27:34.300this dungeon that you're in. Do you mind if I share a couple of verses from the Bible with you?
00:27:41.520And at this point, I am thinking she's plotting something against me. Everyone's against me.
00:27:47.120Everyone wants to destroy me and whatnot. And I was like, okay, whatever. I mean, I've got nothing
00:27:54.000else to lose. Why did you think that everyone wanted to destroy you? Because I felt that my
00:27:59.080immediate family, uh, was the blame for, um, arranging this marriage. And they did that to
00:28:06.840destroy me. And like, now I'm dealing with this man who is very toxic and doesn't trust me. And,
00:28:13.400um, every, you know, every turn he moves, he, he just blames me for everything. And I,
00:28:19.360I saw everyone as someone who wants to harm me, uh, who wants to do something to,
00:28:26.940to um destroy my future and whatnot i just had become very defensive because of all the hurts
00:28:35.260and the exploitation and all that i was very sensitive like who who's talking to me and about
00:28:43.120what what do they want from me like i thought that everyone wants something from me um and so
00:28:49.100when she shared that with me um she she opened up the word of god and she started reading john 1 1
00:28:56.520in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became
00:29:02.600flesh and dwelt among us, John 1, 14. And the moment she read these two verses, even though I
00:29:11.160had no knowledge, no prior knowledge about Jesus, other than, you know, he was one of the prophets
00:29:18.200that performed many miracles. I knew that I knew that I knew that Jesus was my Lord and Savior.
00:29:24.660And I had this, you know, Holy Spirit encounter.
00:29:29.680And now I know that it was the Holy Spirit encounter that just made everything so clear to me.
00:33:47.760So I was in a very difficult environment, in a way, kind of persecution from my own
00:33:58.860husband, but was resident in our home.
00:34:03.620But I thought, based on my very immature faith, that he's in my life because he's my assignment.
00:34:17.440I thought that he's my cross to carry and I will not do anything against the word of God to divorce him or to, you know, separate from him or anything like that.
00:34:33.040I thought that, you know, to live is Christ and part of it, you know, may come with suffering and he is my suffering.
00:34:42.940And he was still physically abusing you at this point?
00:34:46.220Yes. Yes. He was very violent. He was very aggressive.
00:34:51.020um and so anyways i just um i just stayed in the marriage and um let him let him manipulate me
00:35:02.360every which way and because of you know um the word of god that says you know forgive and if
00:35:10.080your brother you know does you wrong forgive seven times seven you know all that but going
00:35:17.600into this new faith I still brought in my performance based faith to where everything
00:35:25.400is on a skill system like I have to I have to do enough good to deserve God's God's goodness and
00:35:34.380grace and so I looked at my new faith as a Christian as you know I need to do everything
00:35:44.440right, such as bearing with his, you know, tolerating his abuse, carrying my cross,
00:35:55.000bearing with him and let him abuse me, let him walk all over me, let him dominate me.
00:36:02.520Divorce is no option for me. It was very black and white and cut and dry. I did not understand
00:36:39.140what is my purpose here? What does he want me to learn from the situation? Does the father want me
00:36:46.720to stay in this abusive relationship or he wants peace for me? He wants growth for me. He wants
00:36:54.460me to live out my purpose. Which one is it that he wants for me? There may be for some people that
00:37:02.220I want you to stay in this relationship because I'm doing something in you. But for me, after 14
00:37:11.860years, the Lord clearly released me from this marriage because it wasn't my cross to carry
00:37:20.160to begin with. I just made it my own cross based on my own perception, my own misinterpretation of
00:37:27.560the word of god my own failure to hear the voice of god for my life uniquely for me not
00:37:35.300not based on set of rules of do's and don'ts yeah just to clarify a couple things that i'm sure that
00:37:43.840you would agree with anyone who is in an abusive relationship needs to find safety and should
00:37:50.860leave that should absolutely leave that marriage yes sometimes marriages are difficult and there
00:37:57.460is disagreement and i have christian friends who are married to unbelieving husbands and that is
00:38:03.360you know very hard and god does use those marriages to sanctify those women to draw those
00:38:08.820women to himself marriage isn't always going to be easy but an abusive marriage a woman needs to
00:38:15.760find refuge for herself for her children and also totally agree with you about the legalism that
00:38:23.480sometimes comes into our mind of this like performance-based religion that if we do this
00:38:28.780then we get this in return or if we don't do this then god doesn't love us or he loves us less
00:38:33.920christianity is a religion in that you know like the book of james says like pure religion is this
00:38:40.900it's taking care of widows and and orphans and so it is a religion but it's different than islam
00:38:46.980it's different than every other religion in that every other faith tells you this is how you can
00:38:52.380get to God. This is how you earn it. This is how you climb up the mountain. You show yourself
00:38:57.920worthy, and then maybe God will look down upon you and show favor to you. But Christianity is that,
00:39:03.700no, there's nothing you can do to earn it. Christ came down from the mountain, proverbial mountain,
00:39:10.420and came to you because you could not save yourself. There's nothing you can do to climb
00:39:14.840up. There's nothing you can do to clean yourself up or to make yourself worthy of my love. Christ
00:39:20.360made us worthy. He gave us his righteousness. And so it is a religion in a sense, but it's
00:39:26.340different because of that relationship aspect, because of the grace, because there's nothing
00:39:32.400we can do to earn our salvation. And no matter someone's background, that takes a long time.
00:39:38.480I mean, it might even take our whole lives for us to really understand God's love and grace for us
00:39:44.540through christ so i imagine it was especially transformative for you considering your background
00:39:50.720yes absolutely it was the the one thing that um sets christianity apart from any other religions
00:39:58.240out there is um that we are given this advocate and the comforter and the holy spirit that teaches
00:40:07.680us all things and we can rely on that. And that was the aspect that came to me as a revelation
00:40:16.140that I didn't understand as a baby in Christ. And, you know, it just leaning in to hearing
00:40:26.720the promptings in our spirit through the Holy Spirit, leaning into hearing the voice of God
00:40:33.640through the Holy Spirit is something that absolutely sets Christianity apart from every
00:40:39.400other religions out there. So you got out of that abusive marriage. And how did you meet your
00:40:45.640current husband? We actually met through a mutual friend. And it was very difficult for me to
00:40:57.900to see myself with another man. It took about eight years of healing and recovery
00:41:07.900from all the hurts and the pains on the inside of me because I had developed this outlook
00:41:14.620that all men are abusive and controlling and jealous and they just want to exploit women.
00:41:21.900And I had closed myself up to any possibility of, you know, marriage or dating or anything like that.
00:41:31.880I just did not want to have any man in my life.
00:41:36.020And it took a couple of years after I met my current husband for the Lord to really convict me of this mindset.
00:41:50.740because I was absolutely against the institution of marriage.
00:41:54.620I was against it, and I thought that I knew that this was not God's will,
00:42:03.040but I was against it because of all the hurts and the pains and the experiences I had.
00:42:07.960And so I had formed this deception in my head that marriage is not for everyone.
00:42:15.140And that was a journey that the Holy Spirit convicted me of that marriage is God's will.
00:42:26.680Marriage is something that God has in store for me.
00:42:30.220And, you know, my perspective changed completely in that period of time to where I wanted to do the will of God and to marry, whereas before I was totally against it, totally against it.
00:42:50.600and um it it was through this marriage that the lord redeemed me from all my pains and
00:42:58.320all my hurts in the past it was i always say it's it was it was a divine um encounter that
00:43:06.420you know the moment i opened myself up to the will of god in my life the lord brought the
00:43:13.180right person into my life to be, um, to be alongside me, to compliment me, um, to do ministry
00:43:21.660together, to serve together. Tell me about your ministry. What is it doing right now? Yes. Um,
00:43:29.120so right now, um, as, as we mentioned, darkness is so, um, abundant in Aaron. I mean, the
00:43:39.220Sexual immorality is increasing, suicide rate is increasing, rate of addiction is going through
00:43:47.420the roof, and people are becoming more desperate and more hopeless every day because of the
00:43:56.660governmental restrictions, the unjust, unfair treatments of people, and so many different
00:44:05.420um, different brutality that's happening in Iran. Um, so what we do because missionaries cannot go
00:44:16.040to Iran and, um, there, you know, there, there's risks of persecution, execution, all that in Iran.
00:44:24.320And so, um, through the satellite TV, we beam into people's homes, the, the love of Christ and the
00:44:32.820gospel. And we basically broadcast church services for those that are believers. We
00:44:41.560share the gospel with non-believers. You know, we have teachings for women and their identity
00:44:48.340on our channel and children, kids. So every with movies that are faith-based, they're all
00:44:56.540being aired in Farsi. And so over the years, Iran Alive Ministries has been ministering to
00:45:05.340Iranians since 2000. And so over the last 24 years, 100,000 people, over 100,000 people
00:45:13.100have contacted us and documented their salvation. And we know that so many others, because of
00:45:21.580you know the risk of getting found out and the persecution they don't ever reach out or anything
00:45:27.540we we believe that there are millions of believers in iran right now an estimated two million now
00:45:34.220and the christian movement is is picking up momentum in iran the discipleship making movement
00:45:42.640is picking up momentum in iran and um more and more people are becoming open to the gospel
00:45:50.300and receiving Christ, which is an amazing phenomenon.
00:45:55.940Iran has the fastest growing evangelical population in the world.
00:46:01.820You know, the operations manual was saying that the, I think in 2019,
00:46:08.840Iran had a rate of 19% of evangelical population.