Early yesterday morning, a young Iranian Christian man who BTJ has supported in the past took his own life.
“It’s become very hopeless,” Naghmeh Panahi says in regards to the situation in Iran. Naghmeh is a former Iranian missionary who still works with the church in Iran. She had been helping the young man with support raised together with BTJ. She had also been running a Bible study that he was a part of.
“The people have a very hopeless mindset right now. [The young man’s death] really affected a lot of the orphans that we support. Please keep the orphans in your prayers.”
The young Christian took a rice pill which is one of the main ways Iranians are committing suicide at the moment. A rice pill is a tablet used to protect stored grains and rice from rodents and other household pests. It is a small pill filled with aluminum phosphide (ALP), a fumigant which releases toxic phosphine when it comes into contact with the moisture of the mouth and stomach.
Christians are suffering from the war in Iran and many are starving to death. Speaking in Baghdad on August 20, Iran’s parliament speaker warned that military power counts for nothing if the people are hungry.
Though the leaders of Iran are not going hungry, the people are. The leaders rarely go hungry during war and famine. While millions died of starvation in 1960s China, Mao Zedong actually became overweight. Stalin fed the Red Army though the Russians starved. Saddam exported donated baby formula for profit while allowing Iraqi babies to die of malnutrition. Kim Jong Il ate during the famine of the 1990s while a quarter of his population starved to death.
Iran is recording record level suicides at the moment. The recorded number was more than 6,000 suicides in 2023, up from roughly 3,500 a decade earlier. An Iran Open Data analysis of the Statistical Center’s latest figures finds a 70 percent increase in the suicide rate over twelve years and that was before the war. Today, that number has skyrocketed because of the hopelessness of the war.
BTJ has sent $20,000 USD to networks inside the country to provide immediate relief during the current crisis with prayers of bringing hope to a hopeless situation. It is hard to see any suicides in Iran, but even more difficult when it is a fellow believer.
Please continue to pray for Iran during this time. To provide immediate aid to Iran, please consider making a donation to the link below.
