{"id":62341,"date":"2025-10-15T16:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62341"},"modified":"2025-10-15T22:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:01:22","slug":"iran-a-metro-station-dedicated-to-the-virgin-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/10\/15\/iran-a-metro-station-dedicated-to-the-virgin-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran, a Metro Station Dedicated to the Virgin Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-130080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iran_metropolitana_maria2.webp\" alt=\"iran metropolitana mary\" width=\"600\" height=\"315\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>In <strong>Iran<\/strong> a metro station is named after the <strong>Virgin Mary<\/strong>. A choice that honors the Christians but <strong>clashes<\/strong> with their repression, especially converts.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Inaugurated on Monday <strong>13 October 2025<\/strong> it is already an international case.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In <strong>Tehran<\/strong> the new metro station is named <strong>\u201cSaint Virgin Mary\u201d<\/strong>, as it is located near the Saint Sarkis Cathedral, in the sixth district.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In <strong>Rome<\/strong>, on line B, there is Santa Maria del Soccorso, in <strong>Madrid<\/strong> on line 4 there is Parque de Santa Mar\u00eda and on line 12 of <strong>Paris<\/strong> we find the station \u201cNotre-Dame-des-Champs\u201d (\u201cOur Lady of the Fields\u201d).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We would never have expected that <mark><strong>Iran<\/strong><\/mark> <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2025\/10\/15\/tehran-metro-saint-mary-station-armenian-church-art\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">would also adopt<\/a><\/em><\/strong> a &#8220;Marian&#8221; metro station, a gesture that the Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities have welcomed as an <strong>official recognition<\/strong> of the historical heritage of Iranian Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The situation of Christians in Iran<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Christians in Iran number about <strong>200,000<\/strong>, concentrated mainly in the major cities of <strong>Tehran<\/strong> and <strong>Isfahan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The cathedral near the metro station, <strong>Saint Sarkis<\/strong>, is the heart of Armenian Christianity in Tehran, the largest confession. Beside the Armenian icons, unfortunately, stands a portrait of the ayatollah <strong>Khomeini<\/strong>, probably a tribute to be paid in order to be allowed to attend a Christian church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The inauguration of the metro takes place against a <strong>contradictory<\/strong> backdrop: repression against Christians, especially converts from Islam, intensified dramatically during 2024.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The <strong>Iranian Constitution<\/strong> recognizes Christians as \u201cPeople of the Book\u201d and guarantees freedom of worship within the limits established by law; <strong>three seats in Parliament<\/strong> are reserved for them among the Armenians and the Assyro-Chaldeans. But in practice many restrictions <strong>remain in force<\/strong>: in schools, in language, in civil rights and in access to certain careers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The interview with the Christian saved by Benedict XVI<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/09\/19\/i-not-catholic-saved-from-death-in-iran-by-benedict-xvi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">We recently spoke<\/a><\/em><\/strong> with <strong>Marziyeh Amirizadeh<\/strong>, an Iranian Christian saved from a death sentence in Evin prison thanks to the secret intervention of <strong>Benedict XVI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the interview the woman tells us that most inhabitants in Iran <i>\u201c<strong>have turned their backs on Islam<\/strong> and are very open to Christianity\u201d<\/i>. However, Marziyeh specifies, <i>\u201cit is still <strong>dangerous<\/strong>\u201d<\/i> for Christians <i>\u201cbecause of the Basij secret police and other repressive bodies\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The documented cases concern, as said, above all <strong>people converted from Islam<\/strong>, who are subjected to charges such as \u201cpropaganda against national security\u201d or alleged connections with external Christian groups, accusations that lead to severe penalties.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is therefore a <strong>strong contrast<\/strong> between this and the apparent symbolic concession of the metro dedicated to the Virgin Mary to pay tribute to Christianity as part of the national heritage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-130081\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iran_metropolitana_maria.webp\" alt=\"iran metro mary\" width=\"577\" height=\"303\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Iran a metro station is named after the Virgin Mary. A choice that honors the Christians but clashes with their repression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":219,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2048,2046,1932,2047],"class_list":["post-62341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-christianity-in-iran","tag-christians-in-iran","tag-iran","tag-iranian-christians"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iran, a Metro Station Dedicated to the Virgin Mary - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Iran a metro station is named after the Virgin Mary. 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