Iran is center stage — again — for all the wrong reasons.
It’s fueling the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, saber-rattling over its nuclear program, and forging a partnership with Russia.
But the Iranian regime, opposed by the majority of the Iranian people, has never been so vulnerable.
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Its Supreme Leader, 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is rumored to be in failing health. The Iranian people are ready for change. The water is boiling — and the kettle is ready to explode.
Iranians, especially young people, have had enough. They’re sick and tired of being bullied and controlled. Rates of unemployment, addiction, and suicide are growing. There’s a strong feeling that the nation is coming to a dead end.
Suppressed by the regime and hidden from the world’s eyes, protests against the Ayatollah’s iron-fist rule occur often. Just recently, a young student stripped in public to protest against the regime’s treatment of women and girls.
You might recall the story of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in 2022 after being arrested and beaten by Iran’s morality police for allegedly failing to wear her hijab properly. Amini’s death sparked mass street protests across Iran, with 500 demonstrators reportedly killed and up to 20,000 imprisoned. It went viral on social media.
Do you realize how many Mahsa Aminis there have been over the past 45 years since the 1979 revolution that created the Islamic Republic of Iran? About 75% of Iran’s population are younger than 45, and all they’ve ever known is religion used as a ruthless ramrod of power. Countless anonymous martyrs died before social media was even invented. They were killed or executed because they wanted a government that respects human rights, religious freedom, and its own people.
Accelerating backlash against the Ayatollah and his regime has generated a massive shift in Iranian society and its religious makeup over the past four decades.
The majority of Iranians are now atheists.
Empty mosques are closing across the country.
But interest in Christianity — and Jesus in particular — is growing.
Iran’s youth: The nation’s hope
Iran’s youth are exploring Christianity on social media apps like Instagram, which has been downloaded 94 million times in Iran in the past three years. It’s an open door for media ministries to reach them with the Gospel message in Farsi, their local language, right on their phones and devices.
Jahan, who’d been taught to hate Christians, heard the Gospel for the first time and gave his life to Christ. “My heart aches for my father and mother,” he said, “I know if they found me, they’d kill me.”
One young Iranian became a believer after hearing Jesus’ words recorded in John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit” (NIV) — the very same words that he’d heard in a dream just days before.
For many isolated Iranian believers, Farsi-language Christian programs on satellite television and social media platforms have become their church — a source of fellowship and, most importantly, hope amid a sea of lies from the Iranian regime.
“We’ve been constantly lied to, and only the Lord knows if anyone still believes the deception,” said Mariam. “I am utterly wary and wonder if there is a brighter tomorrow or if Iran will continue to be in bondage.”
We live in nation-shaking times. Anything could happen in the Middle East at any moment.
If Iran’s regime falls in 2025, my dream could become real: to see a vibrant church in every city in Iran, and a Bible in the hands of every Iranian.
Imagine that!
Panayiotis Keenan is the executive director of SAT-7 PARS (www.sat7usa.org), a Christian media ministry that broadcasts in local languages across the Middle East using satellite television and digital media channels.
