“I don’t want to be killed”: urgent call to prayer as Afghans face deportation
Among the millions of Afghans being deported back to their home country are Christians whose lives are now in grave danger. SAT-7 is highlighting the stories of threatened Afghan Christians, responding to their urgent prayer requests and broadcasting special episodes about the mass deportation.
HEARTBREAKING UPDATES
SAT-7 has been in regular contact with an Afghan man called Alborz, based in Tajikistan, whose brother was killed in Afghanistan for his faith. “When my brother was killed by the Taliban because of his faith in Jesus, for a long time I struggled to forgive them,” Alborz told our Viewer Support team. After meditating on the Sermon on the Mount, he felt able to forgive, but the thought of returning to Afghanistan is still extremely concerning for his family, especially for his teenage daughter, Armita.
“Our situation in Tajikistan is extremely bad,” said Armita, who has followed SAT-7 PARS’ children’s programs for several years. “Many of our fellow [Afghan] believers have been deported from Tajikistan… And in Afghanistan, unmarried girls like me are being forced into marriage, which is very distressing. I don’t even know how to express the terror we are experiencing. The conditions here are really tough.”
Armita wants to hold onto her faith amid the dangers. “I don’t want to go back to Afghanistan. I don’t want to be deported, and I don’t want to be killed. They will ask our family about our faith, and I know everyone will confess that we are Christians… It is not just members of our family who have been killed; many people have died, and we know that if we speak out [about our faith], we too will be killed. Please pray for us.”
We recently received an urgent plea from another SAT-7 PARS viewer based in Tajikistan that laid bare the intense pain being suffered by Afghan Christians. READ MORE HERE
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING NOW?
With huge numbers of Afghans being deported from Iran, many are wondering why this is happening, why now, and whether or not it is even legal. A recent episode of SAT-7 PARS talk show Insiders hosted Dr Saeed Peyvandi, a professor of sociology, who answered these questions.
“After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and their rise to power, we witnessed a massive wave of Afghans entering Iran,” Saeed explained. “This caused a very negative reaction within Iranian society. A kind of phobia of Afghans became widespread in Iran… Renting houses or giving them access to certain facilities were essentially banned, even though such restrictions are illegal.”
Saeed believes that the Iranian government saw mass deportation as a way to win back some popularity and avert people’s attention from their failures. “At least in this one area, where there was public consensus, it could take some decisive steps,” he said.
An Insiders viewer named Mehtab was heartbroken to hear of the lack of respect for the rights of Afghans. “My heart aches when I see all this hatred and pressure from Iran directed at Afghans,” Mehtab said. “It’s very saddening for me to see what our dear Afghan brothers and sisters are going through.”
A Christian viewer, named Cyrus, shared his honest difficulties with living alongside Afghan immigrants: “I am from a different religious background, and I lived in Türkiye for six years. I was often confronted and harassed by Turks and Syrians for becoming a believer. But, honestly, the worst insults and mockery I ever experienced came from Afghan migrants.”
Immigration is rarely simple or easy, for the host or the foreigner. But Saeed offered a wise and measured conclusion. “We need to have a serious internal dialogue,” he said. “Even if some of these individuals are causing problems in our country… we must try to untangle this complex crisis with humanity, transparency and legality.”
In just over seven months, over 1.9 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan to Afghanistan. At least 485 Afghan nationals have also been deported from Tajikistan, among them 334 refugees or asylum-seekers.