Faith in Freedom: Maryam and Marziyeh - a podcast by BBC World Service

John McCarthy meets people who have had to confront their own beliefs while held captive. 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 after being convicted of apostasy for spreading the message of Christianity in their strictly Islamic home country.

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh were known as the ‘dirty Christians’ in Evin prison where they suffered horrendous conditions and witnessed daily abuse. But this did not stop them from sharing the Gospel within the prison.But what the authorities didn't know was that they had distributed approximately twenty thousand bibles they had given out before they were sent to Evin.

They now live in the US, 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.Presenter: John McCarthy
Producer: Geoff Bird

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