Information regarding the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti, son of Bishop Hassan (Ja’far) Dehqani-Tafti and Margaret Thompson, was obtained from an interview with his sister, Ms. Shirin Ward. Additional information was obtained from the book The Hard Awakening (Rev. Dehqani-Tafti, 1981), Ettelaat Newspaper (May 8, 1980), Kayhan Newspaper (May 8, 1980, and May 11, 1980), Jomhuri Eslami Newspaper (May 17, 1980), Kalemeh Magazine (No.41), and ABC News, Australia (February 15, 2015). 

Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti was born on September 22, 1955, in the Christian hospital in Esfahan, Iran (Kalemeh Newspaper No. 41). His father, Reverend Hassan (Ja’far) Dehqani-Tafti, became the first Anglican Bishop in Iran of Iranian descent in 1961, serving the Episcopal Church of Iran, and remained in the Anglican Church until 1990. Mr. Dehqani-Tafti spent his early years with his parents and three sisters in the Anglican compound in Esfahan, a campus containing the bishop’s home, a school for the blind, a church, and a church-run hospital. In 1968, at the age of 12, Mr. Dehqani-Tafti embarked on a journey to the United Kingdom to attend boarding school. He studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University in England and obtained an M.A. in Economics from George Washington University in the United States in 1978 (Ettela’at, May 8, 1980) (The Hard Awakening). 

In the summer of 1978, on the eve of the Iranian Revolution, Mr. Dehqani-Tafti returned to Iran and began teaching economics and dramatic literature at Damavand College, an all-girls school located in northern Tehran (Kalemeh Magazine No. 41). As part of his compulsory military service in the late 1970s, he also taught English at Tehran University (World Watch Monitor, November 11, 2016). 1  In 1979, Mr. Dehqani-Tafti was a translator for foreign journalists residing in Tehran who had traveled from around the world to cover the Iranian Revolution, including NBC News (Ettela'at, May 8, 1980) (Kalemeh No. 41).

On August 30, 1979, the Dehqani-Tafti home in Isfahan was ransacked by a group of unidentified men who destroyed and set fire to the family’s office records and personal belongings and confiscated papers, journals, and the family’s photographs. Reverend Dehqani-Tafti, Bahram’s father, described their behaviors as “obviously highly organized” (The Hard Awakening pp. 48-50). The local Revolutionary Council took no measures to protect the family or investigate the incident. 

Between February and October 1979, individuals from the Islamic Propaganda Society (Anjoman-e Tablighat-e Eslami) progressively took over churches, charitable institutions, and hospitals, and removed the funds in the Episcopalian Church’s bank accounts, with the support of the Revolutionary Committees, and with no objections from the authorities The Reverend left Iran to attend a church council meeting in Cyprus soon after on the early morning of October 27th, 1979, three armed attempted at his life in his bedroom. They missed him but they shot his spouse Margaret in the hand. He never returned to Iran (The Hard Awakening pp. 57).

Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti continued to live in Tehran, and he served as a translator and interpreter for a team of Western reporters on a trip to Iranian Kurdistan in April 1980. Kurdish armed political groups had been fighting with the Revolutionary Guards and the central government forces since the summer of 1979, seeking more autonomy in Kurdistan and equal rights. While on this trip, he and the journalists met with religious leader Sheikh Ezzedine Hosseini and Abdol-Rahman Qasemlu, 2 a prominent Kurdish leader and secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (ABC News Australia, Feb 15, 2015).

According to one of his journalist colleagues, upon their return to Tehran, an unknown individual tried to break into Mr. Dehqani-Tafti’s apartment on April 30, 1980. He was shaken by the incident but refused his friends’ advice to leave the country, wanting to stay in Iran to protect his sisters (Mark Colvin’s Blog, July 8, 2020). According to an interview with Mr. Dehqani-Tafti’s sister, Ms. Shirin Ward, in the days leading up to his death (on May 6, 1980), “[Bahram] was frightened [...] Friends had told him that they were after him. He was staying elsewhere” (ABC Interview, Shirin Ward, Feb. 7, 2023). 

Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti, who had stayed behind in Iran with his sisters Guli and Shirin, requested a visa in the spring of 1980 to attend his sister Susanne’s wedding in England. The visa was denied, and he refused to leave the country illegally (The Hard Awakening pp. 62-63, 82). He was told that the grounds for withholding his passport was his father’s refusal to relinquish the Diocesan Trust Fund, which contained offerings made to the Episcopal Church of Iran to support religious, educational, and other charitable purposes. The head of the Revolutionary Court who was pressuring Mr. Dehqani-Tafti was the same person who had previously threatened his father. The head of the court implied that they could restore his passport to him once the Reverend surrendered the funds: “We have nothing against you… it’s your father who is causing all the trouble.” In the face of repeated threats, Reverend Dehqani-Tafti persisted in guarding the Trust, stating that relinquishing the funds would be grossly unfair to the employees who had invested decades of their lives in the church (The Hard Awakening pp. 65). 

As remembered by his colleague, journalist Mark Colvin, Bahram was initially “a supporter of the Revolution [...]; he was a secular, literary, somewhat Westernized character.” Mr. Colvin is reminded of Mr. Dehqani-Tafti “by the cosmopolitan, western-oriented youth who blog in such numbers from Iran today” (Mark Colvin’s Blog, July 8, 2020). 

Background on Christians and the Episcopalian Church

While Christianity counts among the three Abrahamic religions officially recognized in Iran, the status carved out for Christians by the Constitution and civil and penal code is markedly inferior. In practice, religious tolerance applies only to ethnic groups who are historically Christian, i.e., Armenians and Assyrians, and not to believers or converts from Muslim backgrounds. The Iranian government has implemented policies that demarcate, monitor, and aggressively suppress Christian civic presence.

The Constitution bars Christians from becoming President, members of the Guardian Council, Army Commanders, School Principals, and from holding senior government positions. They are prohibited from running in General Parliamentary elections, and the three seats allocated to Christians in Parliament are exclusively for Armenian, Assyrian, and Chaldean representatives.

Civil and criminal statutes explicitly disadvantage Christian parties. They are entitled to less compensation in car-accident settlements and cannot inherit property from Muslims. Several offenses punishable by lashings for Muslims are for Christians, punishable by death.

The activities of Christian churches and peoples have long been subject to Ministry of Culture surveillance. A law purporting to flag sellers of non-halal foods requires Christian shop owners to display signs reading “designated for religious minorities;” in practice, this signage has been enforced on all Christian businesses as a deterrent to Muslim patrons. Christians have reported denials of academic admissions and business permits on religious grounds. By the mid-90s, all but two Protestant churches had closed under various government pressures, including demands to provide congregants’ names and personal information.

Since the revolution, hundreds of Christians have been detained arbitrarily. Many are sentenced to various prison terms and others are released with the specter of charges and investigations against them that are left open indefinitely. Multiple sources who have been arrested or detained reported being threatened by judicial or security officers with apostasy charges, execution, or assassination. With apostasy left unaddressed in the penal code, judges defer to the Shari’a, leaving Christian converts vulnerable to death sentences; it is also left to the personal discretion of judges whether the murder of a Christian by a Muslim even constitutes a crime. The state has historically displayed a lack of due diligence in resolving the cases of Christians who die in suspect circumstances, which further exacerbates the precarity of Christians’ social and legal status.

While the Iranian government does not publicize official data on the size of Iran’s Christian population, available sources reflect the consensus that conversions from Islam have been steadily on the rise since the revolution and that Iranians with Christian leanings could now number as high as 1 million, or 1.5 percent of the population. The regime thus continues to invest significantly in the surveillance of Christian activities. Scores of Christians have fled Iran and taken refuge in other countries. 

The 1990s marked a period of religious crackdowns that staggered, among others, Christian communities. Amid the overall increase in executions, corporal punishments, raids, and press restrictions, scores of Christian converts were imprisoned and tortured. In an effort to curb growing public interest in Christianity, Iran placed caps on church attendance, shut down Iran’s main Persian-language bible publisher, prohibited sermons in Persian, confiscated all Christian books, closed all Christian bookstores, and dissolved the Iranian Bible society. As of 2023, of 43 Protestant churches in Iran, 16 remain, of which 10 are in Tehran. Only four are permitted to preach in Persian.

The Episcopal Church in Iran

The Episcopal Church in Iran, a diocese of the Anglican Communion, has its roots in 19th-century British missionaries’ presence and has been influenced by Anglican traditions, beliefs, and governance. It operated under the auspices of the Diocese of London until 1976, when it became a member of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. In 1961, the first native Persian bishop was appointed, and progressively, the Church evolved into a predominantly Persian community. The Episcopal church was made up primarily of Muslim converts and delivered its sermons in Persian. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) played a pivotal role in formally founding the church, focusing on education, hospitals, and missionary activities. Missionary work in the 19th and 20th centuries, including famine relief and educational initiatives, led to the establishment of schools, including schools for girls, hospitals, and churches in various Persian cities in the South of Iran, including Yazd, Esfahan, Kerman, and Shiraz. These activities survived changes in leadership, war, and various external circumstances that led to the loss of institutions and deadly violence and persecution of its members. The church maintained its presence in Iran, and as of the late 20th century, it reportedly had around 4,000 members, comprising both expatriates and locals.

The Islamic Revolution brought a renewed wave of persecution onto religious minority communities, and the evangelistic and international nature of the Anglican church made them particularly vulnerable targets. By the early 70s, the support of Western missionaries was still integral to the diocese, and historical associations of the church to England provided an excuse for Iran’s religious revolutionary groups to accuse the Episcopalians of spying. Reverend Sayyah Sina, who headed the Shiraz Episcopalian Church, was brutally assassinated on February 19, 1979. Between June 1979 and August 1980, several Anglican institutions were confiscated, while many Anglican clergy and congregants were intimidated, threatened, disempowered, detained, and interrogated.

Iran’s official media sources were meanwhile mounting a propaganda campaign against the Anglican Diocese, publishing stories in the media that portrayed it as a nest of foreign spies. Personal, business, and accounting documents confiscated from Anglican properties were published without context and recast as “evidence” that Western forces were paying the church for counterrevolutionary ends (The Hard Awakening pp. 65-66). On August 10th, 1980, the newspaper Jomhouri-e Eslami reported that Jean Waddell, former Secretary to the first Iranian-descent Anglican Bishop of Iran, Rev. Hassan (Ja’far) Dehqani-Tafti, was a spy for Mossad and that Rev. Dehqani-Tafti himself was an agent of Great Britain (Jomhuri Eslami Newspaper, August 10, 1980). 3

The Revolutionary Court in an announcement informed the nation that the Christian Hospital of Isfahan before and after the revolution was one of the centers for these spy houses” (Jomhuri Eslami Newspaper, Aug. 10, 1980). On further accounts, crudely-forged correspondences, purportedly among the British Embassy, CIA, and church leadership, were also disseminated (Keyhan Newspaper, Dec. 23, 1980). Anglican Priest Paul Hunt was accused of being an undercover British intelligence operative in the December 10th, 1980 issue of Keyhan Daily. The same article also claimed that Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with the CIA to “sow seeds of civil war” in Iran (Keyhan Newspaper, Dec. 10, 1980).  The latter allegation echoed officials’ stock response to raids and attacks that Anglican victims were reporting at the time, when the blame was laid on purported “counterrevolutionaries” or otherwise rogue elements attempting to slander or overthrow the regime. A few months after the Nozheh coup, 4 the Isfahan Revolutionary Guard Public Relations stated, “In one of the hundreds of documents obtained from the Episcopal circle and in regards to the recent coup plot in Iran. 5

Mr. Bahram Dehqani Tafti’s Extrajudicial Execution

Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti was shot and killed on Tuesday, May 6, 1980. He was driving away from Damavand College to meet his colleague from ABC News, Mark Colvin, to translate and transcribe interviews they had conducted together in Kurdistan (ABC News, February 15, 2015). Along the route, two men in a car pulled in front of his vehicle, blocking the way. They climbed into his car, forced him into the passenger seat, and drove him down a road toward Evin prison, where a 14-year-old bystander witnessed him in conversation with the two abductors. After hearing gunshots ring out, the witness reported the incident to the Evin gendarmerie, who attempted to transport Mr. Dehqani-Tafti to Sa’adat Abad Hospital. He died before he could be treated. Forensic reports indicate that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. He was 24 years old. (The Hard Awakening p.77) (Kayhan, May 11, 1980) (Ettela'at , May 8, 1980). 

According to available information, the shooters were familiar with Mr. Dehqani-Tafti and fled the scene in another vehicle afterward (Ettela'at, May 8, 1980). In the vehicle where Mr. Dehqani-Tafti lost his life, a birth certificate with the name of Bahram Dehqani, No. 454, issued in Esfahan, a post-graduate certificate from George Washington University, and two letters from the Presidency and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office which indicated a ban on leaving the country, were found (Ettela'at, May 8, 1980).

Official reaction

In the following days, Kayhan, a newspaper close to the state, reported that the Evin Gendarmerie officers, who had been informed of the nearby killing, conducted preliminary investigations, filed a preliminary case, and referred Mr. Dehqani-Tafti’s case to the Shemiran Prosecutor’s Office of Investigation (Kayhan, May 11, 1980). Keyhan also reported that officers had begun their efforts to identify the killer(s). By order of the Shemiran Prosecutor’s Office, the body was transferred to the Tehran Medical Examiner’s Office (Kayhan, May 8, 1980). The Shemiran Investigator requested the 1st Precinct of Tehran’s Criminal Investigation Office determine the “location and angle of entry and exit of the bullet, blood type, and whether the bullet has remained inside the skull or not” in order to discover how Mr. Dehqani-Tafti was killed (Kayhan, May 11, 1980). Dr. Hazeq, from the Tehran Medical Examiner’s Office, reported that “there are no signs of assault and battery on Dehqani’s body and Bahram Dehqani-Tafti lost his life due to the impact of one bullet that struck under his left ear and exited from the right side of his head.” He further advised that an expert would be needed to determine information regarding the gun, type of bullet, and shooting distance (Kayhan, May 11, 1980). 

Etelaa’at, another newspaper close to Islamic Republic leadership, declared the murder of Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti a political assassination, “This assassination has a political aspect and is related to the attempt on the life of Bishop Ja’far Dehqani in Cyprus, as well as the attempt on the life of Mrs. Jean Waddell” (Ettela'at Newspaper, May 8, 1980). 

However, on May 17, 1980, Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, the official daily of the Islamic Republic Party, reported that Mr. Dehqani-Tafti’s murder was “mysterious” and claimed that it was“revenge by Western and Eastern spy organizations in Iran.” They further accused the English media, which claimed Mr. Dehqani-Tafti’s case was committed by religious fanatics, of having used bias in their reporting (Jomhuri Eslami Newspaper, May 17, 1980). 

Family’s Reaction

Memorial services for Mr. Bahram Dehqani-Tafti were held in Esfahan, Washington DC, and Oxford, the latter of which was attended by nearly 400 people (The Hard Awakening pp. 84-85). A meeting was also arranged in Damavand College, where Mr. Dehqani-Tafti’s students and colleagues spoke highly of how “popular, sociable, talented” he was (ABC Interview, Shirin Ward, Feb. 7, 2023). 

His sister, Ms. Shirin Ward, stated that the family went to the police and made a statement, but no substantial result came of it (ABC Interview, Shirin Ward, Feb. 7, 2023).

Following Bahram’s murder, Reverend Dehqani-Tafti wrote: “May God forgive the murderers of our son, because obviously they did not know what they were doing. What had he done to them? What have we done to them? He was such a good boy. He came to the country for our sake. He was stopped from going out for our sake. He was killed for my sake. If I knew they would really kill him, I would have come and been killed; but it never occurred to me that they would really kill him [...]” (The Hard Awakening p. 78). 

Bahram Dehqani-Tafti’s sister, Reverend Guli Francis Dehqani, continues to serve as an Anglican bishop in England. She has worked to expand the church’s reach among Iranians, including the delivery of Persian-language sermons 6. 

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1 https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2016/11/bishops-wife-saved-husband-from-iranian-extremists-but-lost-her-only-son/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2nBZ0Dcv9Cxj0Js7wYZH9Kf/invitation-to-trust

2 Qassemlu was himself assassinated on July 13, 1989

3 Furthermore, the Isfahan Revolutionary Guard Public Relations described the allegations against Mrs. Waddell as, “The espionage work was such that all the news and information that spy networks of Israel, England, and probably the United States needed would be sent through special channels or she would move the information herself and would travel to different countries and based on our information she had a connection with BBC Radio and as we know, the Episcopal Church in cities was a gathering place for English spies who, under different titles such a helping the blind or building a hospital, strengthened the spy network, 

4  https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202232/http://mycaldron.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/nojeh-plot.pdf 

5 “it is mentioned that an amount of $500 US million from a CIA source for the episcopal circle has been received which, this money, must be distributed between staff of the Iranian military, Baha’i leaders, and anti-revolutionaries” (Kayhan, August 24, 1980).

6 https://youtu.be/unDx4tWvIrk

https://livingchurch.org/2019/03/05/iranian-christianity-expands/