You know, folks, sometimes a name stays with you after the news has moved on. This week it is Marzieh Ebrahimi Shamsabadi. Many know her as Sevda. She is about 33. She is from Bandar Abbas. An Iranian court has sentenced her to death.

Based on information from Instagram and other online sources, the charges against her are serious: “corruption on earth,” insulting the Supreme Leader, disseminating propaganda against national security, and sending a photo of a missile-strike site to foreign media. Human rights organisations report that her case is still at the initial court stage. They also mention she has been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, and that prison conditions are particularly harsh for someone already facing health challenges.

Before they took her, she wrote a last message on Instagram. It was simple.

“If one day I leave this world, just know one thing — I chose the path I believed in.”

I do not sit in that courtroom. I cannot pretend to know every detail of her case, or every thought of her heart. What I do know is this: a young woman is in a cell under a death sentence, and the Lord sees her.

Folks the Bible does not let us look away from the prisoner, in Hebrews 13:3 it says, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.” That is not politics. That is obedience.

The first readers of this letter already knew what that cost. Hebrews 10:32–34 reminds them that they had suffered with those in chains and had even seen their own goods taken. “In the body” here is simple. It means while we still live in this body, we are as vulnerable as the one in the cell. The Iranian captives feel that. So did those early believers. As long as we are alive on this earth, their pain can be our pain.

Tonight in the men’s Bible study, we were in Ephesians 3:1–13. Paul writes as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus.” He is in chains, yet he is talking about a mystery now revealed, Gentiles brought near, and the church showing the wisdom of God to the powers in the heavenlies. Then he says, do not lose heart at my tribulations.

We know Sevda is not Paul and we must not force her story into his, but the pattern is very much the same. Being a prisoner. A nation under fear. And a God who still builds His church while men try to shut the door. Paul’s chains served the Gentiles. The suffering of the church in Iran is not wasted either. The Lord knows how to use a cell.

She is not the only one.

HRANA reports that at least eight imprisoned women in Iran are facing death sentences. Their names are Pakhshan Azizi, Arghavan Fallahi, Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, Maryam Hodavand, Mahnaz Chardoli, Leila Abolhasani, Taraneh Rahimi, and Souda (Marzieh) Ebrahimi Shamsabadi.

Four of them —> Maryam Hodavand, Mahnaz Chardoli, Leila Abolhasani, and Taraneh Rahimi <— were sentenced in cases tied to the January protests. Pakhshan Azizi, Arghavan Fallahi, and Zahra Shahbaz Tabari are in separate political and security cases. Sevda’s case is linked to the war and to a photograph she is said to have sent abroad.

These are not all stories of house-church believers. They are women under the same heavy hand. The Lord still sees every name.

Iran has used fear for a long time. Executions are meant to silence a nation. The UN has said as much. But fear is not the last word. We have watched the Lord do a quiet, stubborn work in that land for years. House churches still meet. People still find Bibles. Many still meet Jesus in dreams and in the Word. Marziyeh Amirizadeh, who herself sat under a death sentence for her faith, keeps saying the church is not dying there. It is being refined. That matches what missionaries like Pastor Georges Houssney have been telling us: when men put their hope in violence, many hearts start looking for another King.

So we hold two things at once. We grieve for Sevda and for every other soul on that list. And we refuse to believe that a regime can shut the door on God.

The verse that keeps coming back is this:

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” (Hebrews 12:28, NKJV)

Men can pass a sentence. They cannot shake that kingdom.

If you are reading this in Iran through some hidden way, hear this: you are not forgotten. The church in Scotland, and the church around the world, can still get on its knees.

A Prayer

Father, we come in the name of Jesus.

You see Marzieh “Sevda” Ebrahimi Shamsabadi tonight in Bandar Abbas Prison. You know her sickness. You know her fear. You know the sentence hanging over her.

Have mercy, Lord. Hear my prayer. Spare her life. Give her the medicine she needs. Give her advocates who will not be silent. Restrain those who use death to make a nation afraid.

Lord, we name before You also Pakhshan, Arghavan, Zahra, Maryam, Mahnaz, Leila, and Taraneh. Have mercy on each of them.

If she does not know You, reveal Jesus to her in that cell. Let her find the peace the world cannot give.

We pray for every prisoner in Iran, for the house churches that still gather, and for a people weary of fear. Shake what can be shaken. Keep what belongs to You.

We thank You that Your kingdom cannot be moved.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.