Women Imprisoned For Christ Conference 2025

Naghmeh Abedini Panahi is an author, speaker and Bible teacher.  Born in Tehran in 1977, Naghmeh Panahi immigrated to the United States at the age of nine and soon converted from Islam to Christianity. In late 2001, after graduating from college, she returned to Iran to work as a businesswoman and missionary. It was there that she also met her future husband, Saeed Abedini, with whom she led one of the largest house church movements in Iran. In 2005, due to persecution, she and Saeed moved to the United States, where their two children were born. When Saeed visited Iran in 2012 to work with the underground church, he was arrested. Naghmeh unceasingly advocated for Saeed’s release, publicly appealing to President Barak Obama, Donald Trump, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and nearly every major news outlet over the three and a half years that Saeed was in prison.

On Christmas Eve of 2013, Mariam Ibraheem’s life was turned upside down. Mariam was sentenced to death and given three days to recant her faith. Refusing to give up her Christian faith, she was sent to prison alongside her 9-month-old son by the Sudanese government. In prison, she discovered that she was pregnant. Upon this development, her death sentence was postponed until after she gave birth.
As absurd as this story sounds, it was the reality for Mariam and her family. By the grace of God, she was released from prison in June 2014.

Sarah Liu was born again in 1989, coming to faith in Christ through the love and prayers of her mother, never looking back since. Despite government restrictions, she was baptized in secret in 1991, braving the winter cold to evade the watchful eye of the Public Security Bureau (PSB). Her ministry as an evangelist began in 1990 after intensive training, traveling throughout Hubei and Sichuan provinces in a two-by-two ministry model to preach the gospel. However, her unwavering faith led to persecution. In 1991, she was arrested for “disturbing social order” and warned to attend only government-controlled churches. Arrested again in 1996, she was sentenced without trial to three years in a Women’s Reeducation Through Labor prison, where she endured brutal interrogation and torture aimed at forcing her to renounce her faith and betray fellow believers. Despite the suffering, she remained steadfast, refusing to deny Christ. In 2001, on her birthday, Sarah was arrested once more under even more severe charges. Though she successfully appealed, local police retaliated by abducting her and sentencing her to a forced labor camp for three years. After enduring years of persecution, she finally escaped China in 2005 with the help of her church and China Aid, eventually receiving refugee status in the United States.