My wife has been praying for these two ladies for months. She printed out their picture and put it on our fridge. We had our kids and church praying for them as well. We were all thrilled with this news we read yesterday:
ISTANBUL, November 18 – Two Christian Iranian women, Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, were released from prison this afternoon with no bail amid an international campaign calling for their freedom since their arrest on March 5.
They still could face charges of proselytizing and “apostasy,” or leaving Islam. The two women, whose health deteriorated while in detention at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, are at their homes recovering from their nine-month ordeal, an Iranian source told Compass.
The women’s lawyer had been working to secure their release, and although they were expected to be released yesterday, he was not able to do so because of the high bail the court was demanding.
The Compass source said that it was too soon to determine how the lawyer was able to secure their release without bail today, a rarity for Christians released from prison in Iran.
The source credited their release to international lobbying and pressure on the Iranian government. “It was from the international pressure, and also the government couldn’t handle it anymore,” said the source. ”
Already their detention was illegal. At the same time, the government wasn’t ready to prosecute them for apostasy. They already have many headaches. They cannot handle everything.”