Nagmeh Abedini, wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini, holds of a photo of her family. (Inset) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Abedini, wife of American pastor Saeed Abedini who has been imprisoned
in Iran for his Christian faith since 2012, has made an impassioned plea
to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, when he travels to New
York City later this month, in hopes to personally lobby the president
for her husband's freedom.
In a letter posted
by the American Center for Law and Justice, which was sent to the
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
last month, Nagmeh Abedini highlighted the suffering of her family and
the need to have her husband back home.
"… For the last three years, our family has greatly suffered in the
absence of my husband and my children's father. Saeed is currently being
held in Rajaei Shahr prison in Gohardasht. Saeed is not a criminal.
Saeed is not a threat to Iran or the stability of its government," she
wrote.
"Saeed is a husband and a father. Saeed is suffering from
internal injuries incurred during his time in prison that Iranian
doctors have indicated need surgery and hospitalization, but which he
has not yet received," she continued.
Citing the failed efforts of
delegates of many nations, including the United States, to negotiate
her husband's release, Nagmeh then asked for a personal meeting with
Rouhani.
"The purpose of the United Nations General Assembly is to
facilitate discussion and decision-making that advances peace and
security around the world. Yet, my husband remains in prison for nothing
more than the peaceful exercise of his faith. Therefore, it is with the
same spirit of diplomacy and decency that governs the annual session of
the U.N. General Assembly that I respectfully request a meeting for
myself and my legal counsel with President Rouhani, Foreign Minister
Zarif, and yourself to discuss Saeed's situation," she wrote in her
letter to Ambassador Gholam Ali Khoshroo.
World leaders will
gather at the United Nations in New York City later this month for the
70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In a CBN news
interview in July, Nagmeh revealed that a few months into his
imprisonment in Iran three years ago, her husband had a dream that he
was out of prison celebrating his daughter, Rebecca's, ninth birthday.
Rebecca
turns 9 "in a few months," she explained, and said at the time that she
was looking to God to move on behalf of her husband.
"He [Saeed]
hopes that he will be here for Rebecca's ninth birthday. He mentioned to
his father that the first few months of his imprisonment he'd been in
solitary and he had a dream that he was here when Rebecca was not much
older. He thought she was maybe 9. He had a dream about that and he's
really hoping that he would be here before she turns 9. If he misses her
nineth birthday, he would have missed four birthdays, pretty much half
my kids' lifetime," said Naghmeh Abedini.
The ACLJ also released
the artwork of Rebecca and her brother, Jacob, pleading with Rouhani to
release their father, shown below.
(Photo: ACLJ)Jacob Abedini's drawing.
Rebecca Abedini's drawing. (Photo: ACL
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