Faith in Freedom
John McCarthy meets people who have had to confront their own beliefs while held captive.
Episode 1: Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh
In a new series of Faith in Freedom for Heart and Soul, John McCarthy meets people who have had to confront their own beliefs while held captive or prisoner.
In the first episode John, who was held hostage by Islamic radical groups in Lebanon, speaks to two Iranian women who risked torture in one of the world’s most notorious prisons to spread the word of the Christian Bible.
Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh were known as the ‘dirty Christians’ in Evin prison where they suffered horrendous conditions and witnessed daily abuse, but despite that they carried on sharing the Gospel within the prison. They now live in the USA, and despite the daily horrors they witnessed, Maryam and Marziyeh see Evin as a church, somewhere they were placed by God to spread the word. But John will ask about their work now in a country where there is freedom to pray and preach. Are they still carrying out God’s work?