The people of Iran
Thought for the Day
20th June 2025
Good morning. Some 30 years ago my wife and I had a wonderful holiday in Iran visiting the main sites. Persepolis, of course, the centre of a huge Persian empire in the 6th Century before Christ where we were reminded that one Ruler, Cyrus, was a great friend of the biblical people. As a result of his decree in 539 BC the Jewish people in captivity in Babylon were allowed to go free and return to Jerusalem. One of those decisions which changed the whole course of human history.
Then there is Isfahan with its amazing mosques dating from the Safavid empire in the 16th century covered in their stunning Persian blue tiles, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
When we landed at Shiraz airport and got off the plane we were greeted by a group of young teenage girls who wanted to speak to the passengers to practice their English. One girl came up to me and to get the conversation going asked me what I did. I replied that I was a kind of Christian Imam-to which she immediately responded with the words ‘I don’t think God is a woman’. Where on earth had she got the idea that I thought this to be the case? I can only imagine she had picked up something from the English media about a debate in the Church of England on feminine terms for God. Anyway I explained to her that God is beyond gender and all that we mean by masculine and feminine are contained in their fulness in the Godhead. She then preached me the most beautiful little sermonette on the theme that God is love. Perhaps this was not totally surprising for Shiraz is the city of Rumi and Hafez, the 13th and 14th centuries, mystical poets of love revered not just in Iran but round the world. So there I was in an Iranian airport, an Anglican cleric, listening attentively to a 14 year old girl as she told me, in what was for her a foreign language, about the love of God.
I wonder what that girl, now grown up, is doing with her life? Whether she has put up with the regime or resisted it? According to a major survey conducted earlier this year by the Netherlands based Gamaan Institute 80% of Iranians contacted said they preferred a democratic form of government to the Islamic republic. Many of them will no doubt hope and pray that the time will come one day when they will be free from rulers they have experienced as oppressive and aggressive - at least 901 people were executed last year for example. And I pray that those of us outside the country will once again be able to enjoy the richness and beauty of Iranian culture and its people.