Pastor Saeed ( born 7 May 1980) and Naghmeh Abedini have announced on social media that they are divorcing.
This has come as a shock to the nation, as their social media followers relate the former on how much his wife Naghmeh Abedini advocated for his release from prison.
On January 27, 2016 Reuters reported that Naghmeh Abedini filed for legal separation however, it was not until yesterday that Saeed posted the following on his Facebook page:
“My heart is deeply saddened to be sharing the news that Naghmeh and I will be divorcing…There are no words to describe the ongoing effect of the trauma I experienced and my family has experienced both during and in the aftermath of my imprisonment. We are different people, and we are hurting people. It pains me to say, but I have decided the only path toward healing is apart, and not together.”
His wife confirmed that she had experienced “physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse through her husband’s addiction to pornography.” She wrote, “The abuse started early in our marriage and worsened during Saeed’s imprisonment,”
In July 2012, Abedini made his ninth trip to Iran since 2009 to visit his family and continue his work to build an orphanage in the city of Rasht.
While in the country, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confiscated his passports and placed him under house arrest. He was transferred to Evin Prison in late September.
On January 27, 2013, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, reportedly on charges of undermining national security through private religious gatherings in Christian homes in Iran in the early 2000s. In November 2013, the Iranian government transferred Abedini to Rajai Shahr prison, just outside Karaj, Iran.
On January 16, 2016, he was released from prison with 2 other American prisoners.
Abedini became an ordained minister in the U.S., granted American citizenship, thus becoming a dual Iranian-American citizen.
Abedini had been living the past several years with his family in Boise, Idaho, where his wife grew up. The couple has two young children and they are members at the Calvary Chapel church in Boise.
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
