GENDER APARTHEID IS FEMICIDE

Abortion in Afghanistan: ‘My mother crushed my stomach with a stone’

By AFP
December 4, 2025


A protest for Afghan women's rights in New Delhi in 2021, the year the Taliban returned to power - Copyright AFP/File Sajjad HUSSAIN

Claire GOUNON

When Bahara was four months pregnant, she went to a Kabul hospital to beg for an abortion. “We’re not allowed,” a doctor told her. “If someone finds out, we will all end up in prison.”

Abortion in Afghanistan is illegal and you can be locked up for having or assisting one.

But Bahara was desperate. Her jobless husband had ordered her to “find a solution” — he did not want a fifth daughter.

“We can barely afford to feed” the girls as it is, Bahara, 35, told AFP. “If it was a boy, he could go to school and work.”

But there are no such prospects for a girl, with women banned from secondary schools, universities and most jobs since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

So Bahara took a neighbour’s advice and bought — for the equivalent of two dollars — a herbal tea at the market made from a type of mallow that induces contractions.

The bleeding was so bad she had to go back to the hospital. “I told them that I had fallen, but they knew I was lying because I had no marks on my body. They were angry but did not report me,” said the mother-of-four.

“They operated and removed the remains of the foetus. Since then I have felt very weak.”

The plant she used can be “very risky”, said ethnobotanist Guadalupe Maldonado Andrade from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. A wrong dose can cause organ damage and severe haemorrhaging.

Bahara’s is not an isolated case.

Two other women AFP talked to during our months-long investigation also risked their lives to abort. Nesa took tablets toxic to the embryo and Mariam crushed her stomach with a heavy stone.

Of the dozen women AFP talked to about their clandestine abortions, only five agreed to be interviewed on condition we protected their anonymity and changed their names. Even outside Taliban circles, the fear of being stigmatised, and arrested, is strong in Afghanistan’s deeply conservative society.



– More ‘miscarriages’ –



With such a taboo, and no real statistics, Sharafat Zaman of the Afghan health ministry insisted “few” women are affected.

The Taliban — who follow a strict interpretation of Islam — did not change the abortion laws when they returned to power in 2021.

But officials check more often that terminations are not being carried out in hospitals, panicking doctors and pushing women to have abortions in secret, according to many health sector workers AFP interviewed.

Several doctors said the number of miscarriages has increased since 2021, which they suspect may conceal clandestine abortions given the injuries patients present and their psychological state.

Two international medical organisations also said they noticed the same trend, while access to contraception has become more difficult.

“Budget constraints and the forced closure of family planning services endanger access to modern contraception,” a UN source told AFP, saying less than half of Afghan women have access to methods such as condoms, implants or pills.

Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world, with young women banned from training as midwives or nurses in medical schools since last year.

While health ministry spokesman Zaman acknowledged the dangers of clandestine abortions, and that some women face “problems”, he said it was not the government’s fault.

Abortion is permitted when the life of a pregnant woman is in grave danger. However, in practice it is rarely granted. For the Taliban abortion is “taking a life”, Zaman said.



– He didn’t want another girl –



“Before (the Taliban’s return) we were able to perform more abortions, there were NGOs helping us and no government checks,” said a 58-year-old gynaecologist in Kabul.

“Now doctors are afraid because if they check prescriptions at a pharmacy, it’s very dangerous” for them.

Women are afraid to ask for a termination in hospital, she said, “so more are trying it at home, and then they go to hospital saying they have had a miscarriage.”

Some pharmacies sell them the abortion drug misoprostol without a prescription, the doctor said.

While some healthcare workers are compassionate, others can demand exorbitant sums in what is one of the world’s poorest countries.

Nesa, a mother of eight daughters and one son, found out she was pregnant with another girl at four months.

“I knew if my husband found out, he would throw me out. He thinks we do better with boys,” the 35-year-old farmer said.

“I begged a clinic to help me. They asked for 10,000 Afghanis (130 euros), which I didn’t have. I went to the pharmacy without a prescription and they gave me a malaria drug, saying it would help.”

The only antimalarial drugs available in Kabul pharmacies are chloroquine and primaquine, drugs that should not be used during pregnancy, according to the French agency for medicine safety (ANSM), because they are potentially toxic to the foetus.

“I started bleeding and lost consciousness,” Nesa said. “I was taken to the hospital and I begged the doctors not to report me and they removed the remains of the foetus.”



– Constant pain –



Mariam, 22, had an affair. While abortion is a source of shame in Afghanistan and weighs on the entire family, sex outside marriage is often dangerous, sometimes leading to femicides known as “honour killings”.

One month into her pregnancy, “my mother contacted a midwife, but she asked for too much money. So my mother brought me home, placed a very heavy stone on my belly and crushed my stomach.

“I screamed and started bleeding,” Mariam said. “I went to the hospital and they told me the embryo was gone. Now I am depressed and constantly have stomach pain.”

Only one third of women globally live in countries where abortion is allowed on demand, according to the US NGO Center for Reproductive Rights. Illegal abortions result in 39,000 deaths a year worldwide, it estimates.

A Kabul midwife told AFP she feels “helpless and weak for not being able to help (women) more.” A gynecologist in the Nangarhar region in the east of the country was equally despairing.

“I feel for these women — I vowed to help them by becoming a doctor. But we can’t,” she said.

Greek govt seeks to tackle farmer protests after Crete clashes


By AFP
December 9, 2025


Farmers block the highway outside the central Greek city of Karditsa

 on December 8, 2025 to demand swifter access to EU subsidies

 - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS

Vassilis KYRIAKOULIS, Will VASSILOPOULOS

Greece’s government was on Tuesday scrambling to keep angry farmers from blocking key infrastructure after airports were occupied on Crete in a growing nationwide protest for agriculture funds.

Thousands of tractors have intermittently blocked highways and border crossings since late November, and the farmers have vowed to block the central port of Volos on Wednesday.

“At this moment, there are over 20,000 tractors on the roads of Greece, possibly approaching 25,000,” Sokratis Alifteiras, a senior farm unionist for the central Larissa region, told AFP.

“The decision made by the farmers of Thessaly for tomorrow morning is to block the port of Volos” from both land and sea, he said.

The conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has for months struggled to address a farm subsidy scandal investigated by EU authorities, which has resulted in payment delays to tens of thousands of growers.

The government has promised to allocate additional funds to legitimate farmers, who are under additional pressure this year owing to low prices for their produce, higher energy costs and a disastrous sheep pox epidemic.

“Produce prices are so humiliatingly low, that the cost of production is higher than the money we earn,” Vaios Tsiakmakis, a tobacco and cotton grower told AFP at a protest near the central town of Karditsa.

On Monday, farmers on the island of Crete broke through police lines and occupied the main airports of Heraklion and Chania, forcing several flights to be cancelled or rescheduled.

Another farm protest on the island of Lesbos on Monday prevented passengers from leaving an outbound ferry.

The protest in Heraklion ended on Tuesday, while in Chania the farmers were seeking to meet with local officials before deciding on further action.

In May, EU prosecutors alleged that thousands of suspects — many of them not farmers — had for years made claims for land they did not own, and exaggerated livestock numbers.

Greek officials say more than 30 million euros ($35 million) of false claims were made.

The alleged graft is believed to have been ongoing at least since 2018, costing genuine farmers 70 million euros annually.

“The money never reached the farmers, those who stole should be in prison,” said Costas Tsoukalas, another farmer at the Karditsa protest.

The government has vowed that no legitimate farmers will lose money and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday insisted the government was open to dialogue with farmers’ representatives.

He warned the protests could be detrimental to the farmers’ cause.

“Sometimes, the most extreme mobilisations might turn large segments of society against the farmers, who may have legitimate demands,” said the Greek leader, whose home island of Crete is strongly implicated in the scandal.

According to officials, the sector stands to receive 3.7 billion euros in subsidies this year, 600 million euros more than in 2024.

Approximately 80 percent of total subsidies granted from 2017 to 2020 for pastures ended up in Crete.

The scandal has already led to the resignation of one minister.

Farmers are also demanding compensation following the loss of over 400,000 sheep and goats in a sheep pox outbreak, all of which were slaughtered to stop the spread of the disease.

‘Democracy has crumbled!’: Four arrested in UK Crown Jewels protest


By AFP
December 6, 2025


A little-known, self-proclaimed civil resistance group called Take Back Power claimed responsibility - Copyright Take Back Power/AFP Handout

London police arrested four people Saturday after apple crumble and custard were thrown at a display case containing Britain’s priceless Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, in the latest direct action protest stunt.

The city’s Metropolitan Police said officers responded to “reports of criminal damage to a display case, containing the State Crown” and that “four protesters threw suspected food onto the case before two left the scene”.

“Officers worked closely with City of London Police and security officers and four people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage,” the force added. It noted they were in custody.

A little-known, self-proclaimed non-violent civil resistance group called Take Back Power claimed responsibility, saying its members had thrown the crumble and custard.

It is “demanding that the UK government establish a permanent citizen’s assembly… which has the power to tax extreme wealth and fix Britain”, according to statement posted online.

The group shared a video of the incident on social media showing a young woman planting a foil tray containing the crumble up against the glass pane, followed by a young man splattering custard from a tub on top of it.

The Imperial State Crown, worn by King Charles III at the end of his 2023 coronation ceremony and at formal occasions like the State Opening of Parliament, could be seen shimmering inside the case.



– ‘Britain is broken’ –



Both suspected perpetrators in the footage wore t-shirts with “take back power” and a logo emblazoned on the front.

“Democracy has crumbled!” the young woman yelled, as the custard-throwing man shouted “Britain is broken!”

“We’ve come here, to the jewels of the nation, to take back power,” he added.

The footage, filmed by another person close by, showed a female staff member with a walkie-talkie attempting to intervene, repeatedly shouting “excuse me!” as she radioed for help.

The incident is the latest example of so-called direct action demonstrations, targeting cultural, sporting and other sites in Britain and beyond.

Stunts have included targeting Vincent van Gogh’s glass-protected “Sunflowers” painting with tomato soup and daubing Stonehenge with orange paint powder.

Take Back Power targeted the Ritz Hotel on Wednesday, emptying bags of manure next to its Christmas tree.

The Crown Jewels were not damaged during its new stunt, the Historic Royal Palaces charity which manages the Tower of London said.

The Jewel House at the world-famous tower where most of the historic treasures are kept temporarily closed while police investigated, but reopened later Saturday.

The Crown Jewels are Britain’s most precious treasures, including regalia used at coronations of new monarchs.

Comprising more than 100 objects and over 23,000 gemstones, they are considered “of incalculable cultural, historical, and symbolic value,” according to Historic Royal Palaces.

The jewels are part of the Royal Collection, held in trust by the monarch for the nation.

Nepal estimates millions in damages from September protests


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Nepal suffered losses of about $586 million in deadly anti-corruption protests in September, a report says - Copyright AFP/File PRABIN RANABHAT

Nepal on Thursday estimated that the country suffered losses of about $586 million in September’s deadly anti-corruption protests that ousted the government.

The youth-led demonstrations, initially triggered by anger over a brief government ban on social media, were fuelled by deeper frustration over economic hardship and corruption.

After a police crackdown killed young protestors, the riots spread and on the second day more than 2,500 structures were torched, looted or damaged.

The committee formed to assess the damage caused during the protest submitted its report to Prime Minister Sushila Karki on Thursday, the prime minister’s secretariat said in a statement.

The report said that a total of 77 people died during the movement, 20 people on 8 September, 37 on the following day and another 20 later.

“In terms of total physical damage, the committee estimates the loss to be equivalent to 84 arab 45 crore 77 lakh rupees ($586 million),” the statement said.

The report said that damage to government and public buildings accounted for half of the amount.

The unrest spread nationwide on its the second day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the government’s collapse.

Within days, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister to lead the Himalayan nation to elections on March 5, 2026.

Karki’s cabinet formed the committee to assess the damage soon after.

The committee also submitted a reconstruction plan, estimating a need of $252 million.

Three months on from the September 8–9 protests, and with three months to go before elections, Nepal faces daunting challenges including rising unemployment and collapsing foreign investment.

Some of Nepal’s largest companies — major contributors to state revenue — suffered heavy losses, including Bhat-Bhateni supermarkets, the Chaudhary Group conglomerate and the telecom provider Ncell.

In Pokhara, one of Nepal’s key tourist hubs, Hotel Sarowar was set ablaze.

“The loss is immense,” chairman Bharat Raj Pahari told AFP in an interview earlier this month. “It has directly affected 750 family members.”

The World Bank in November revised its growth projections for Nepal, warning that due to the recent unrest and “heightened political and economic uncertainty, real GDP growth is projected to slow to 2.1 percent” in 2025, from an earlier forecast of 5.1 percent.

It also raised its poverty estimate to 6.6 percent of the population this financial year, up from 6.2 percent.

Mexico’s Sheinbaum holds huge rally following major protests


By AFP
December 6, 2025

 - Copyright AFP Alfredo ESTRELLA

Arturo ILIZALITURRI

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered Saturday in Mexico’s capital to support President Claudia Sheinbaum, as the leftist leader sought to demonstrate her continued popularity following a month of political pushback and major protests.

“Let no one be mistaken,” Sheinbaum told the huge crowd, many of whom had arrived by bus from across the country. “The vast majority of young people support the transformation” of public life in Mexico, she stressed.

Authorities said around 600,000 people gathered in Mexico City’s Zocalo, the main square home to the National Palace where Sheinbaum lives and works. They chanted “You are not alone!” and “Claudia, listen, the people are in the fight!”

The killing of mayor Carlos Manzo in restive Michoacan state had sparked two days of demonstrations in November, with protesters setting fire to public buildings.

Weeks later thousands marched through the streets of Mexico City to protest drug violence and the government’s security policies.

That was followed by the abrupt departure of the country’s attorney general, Alejandro Gertz, in late November over reported disagreements with Sheinbaum’s administration on crime policy.

At the rally Saturday, 24-year-old Jose Perez, a craftsman of Otomi descent, said he came out to support Sheinbaum because he feels Indigenous people “are more visible” under her government.

Sheinbaum took office in 2024 following the six-year tenure of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with both leaders representing the left-wing Morena party.

Though Sheinbaum has earned high approval ratings in her first year, they dipped slightly in recent months — from 74 percent in October to 71 percent in early December, according to the Polls MX survey summary.



– ‘Reshape the narrative’ –



Analysts told AFP the president faces scrutiny not only from her political opponents and members of the public, but from within her own party.

The rally is an “attempt at internal support, to reshape the narrative, to call for unity,” said political analyst Pablo Majluf.

Political columnist Hernan Gomez Bruera told AFP that Sheinbaum is “an incredibly efficient president” who likes to be in control and demands a lot from her team. But she is also “very thin-skinned” and “has difficulty dealing with dissent,” he added.

Sheinbaum’s party has advocated for social justice through policies to aid the underprivileged, but prominent party members have been involved in overspending scandals.

Despite the recent slip in poll numbers, Mexico’s first woman president is still benefiting from a decline in poverty levels that began under her predecessor.

Sheinbaum has also won praise among her supporters for keeping at bay US President Donald Trump’s threats of high trade tariffs and military action on Mexican soil against drug cartels.

“She has been very prudent” in her relationship with Trump, said Ana Laura Jacome, a 42-year-old housewife who attended Saturday’s rally, using a cane to walk with fellow supporters.

Sheinbaum met with Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Washington on Friday to discuss trade on the sidelines of the draw for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by all three countries.

She said on X following the meeting that the three nations maintain a “very good relationship.”

This sinister pattern shows how Nazis will deploy AI

The Conversation
December 7, 2025 


A neo-Nazi protest in Harvard Square. Pic: Screengrab


By Michelle Lynn Kahn, Associate Professor of History, University of Richmond

How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and 90s — and it hasn’t gone away.

Decades before artificial intelligence, Telegram and white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ livestreams, far-right extremists embraced the early days of home computing and the internet. These new technologies offered them a bastion of free speech and a global platform. They could share propaganda, spew hatred, incite violence and gain international followers like never before.

Before the digital era, far-right extremists radicalized each other primarily using print propaganda. They wrote their own newsletters and reprinted far-right tracts such as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and American neo-Nazi William Pierce’s The Turner Diaries, a dystopian work of fiction describing a race war. Then, they mailed this propaganda to supporters at home and abroad.

I’m a historian who studies neo-Nazis and far-right extremism. As my research shows, most of the neo-Nazi propaganda confiscated in Germany from the 1970s through the 1990s came from the United States. American neo-Nazis exploited their free speech under the First Amendment to bypass German censorship laws. German neo-Nazis then picked up this print propaganda and distributed it throughout the country.


This strategy wasn’t foolproof, however. Print propaganda could get lost in the mail or be confiscated, especially when crossing into Germany. Producing and shipping it was also expensive and time-consuming, and far-right organizations were chronically understaffed and strapped for cash.

Going digital

Computers, which entered the mass market in 1977, promised to help resolve these problems. In 1981, Matt Koehl, head of the National Socialist White People’s Party in the United States, solicited donations to “Help the Party Enter The Computer Age.” The American neo-Nazi Harold Covington begged for a printer, scanner and “serious PC” that could run WordPerfect word processing software. “Our multifarious enemies already possess this technology,” he noted, referring to Jews and government officials.

Soon, far-right extremists figured out how to connect their computers to one another. They did so by using online bulletin board systems, or BBSes, a precursor to the internet. A BBS was hosted on a personal computer, and other computers could dial in to the BBS using a modem and a terminal software program, allowing users to exchange messages, documents and software.

With BBSes, anyone interested in accessing far-right propaganda could simply turn on their computer and dial in to an organization’s advertised phone number. Once connected, they could read the organization’s public posts, exchange messages and upload and download files.

The first far-right bulletin board system, the Aryan Nations Liberty Net, was established in 1984 by Louis Beam, a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.

Beam explained: “Imagine, if you can, a single computer to which all leaders and strategists of the patriotic movement are connected. Imagine further that any patriot in the country is able to tap into this computer at will in order to reap the benefit of all accumulative knowledge and wisdom of the leaders. ‘Someday,’ you may say? How about today?”

Then came violent neo-Nazi computer games. Neo-Nazis in the United States and elsewhere could upload and download these games via bulletin board systems, copy them onto disks and distribute them widely, especially to schoolchildren.

In the German computer game KZ Manager, players role-played as a commandant in a Nazi concentration camp that murdered Jews, Sinti and Roma, and Turkish immigrants. An early 1990s poll revealed that 39 percent of Austrian high schoolers knew of such games and 22% had seen them.
Arrival of the web

By the mid-1990s, with the introduction of the more user-friendly World Wide Web, bulletin boards fell out of favor. The first major racial hate website on the internet, Stormfront, was founded in 1995 by the American white supremacist Don Black. The civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center found that almost 100 murders were linked to Stormfront.

By 2000, the German government had discovered, and banned, over 300 German websites with right-wing content — a tenfold increase within just four years.

In response, American white supremacists again exploited their free speech rights to bypass German censorship bans. They gave international far-right extremists the opportunity to host their websites safely and anonymously on unregulated American servers — a strategy that continues today.

Up next: AI

The next frontier for far-right extremists is AI. They are using AI tools to create targeted propaganda, manipulate images, audio and videos, and evade detection. The far-right social network Gab created a Hitler chatbot that users can talk to.

AI chatbots are also adopting the far-right views of social media users. Grok, the chatbot on Elon Musk’s X, recently called itself “MechaHitler,” spewed antisemitic hate speech and denied the Holocaust.

Countering extremism

Combating online hate is a global imperative. It requires comprehensive international cooperation among governments, nongovernmental organizations, watchdog organizations, communities and tech corporations.

Far-right extremists have long pioneered innovative ways to exploit technological progress and free speech. Efforts to counter this radicalization are challenged to stay one step ahead of the far right’s technological advances.

Navy delivers report to Hegseth on potential punishment for Sen. Mark Kelly over ‘illegal orders’ video

Zachary Cohen, 

CNN
Thu, December 11, 2025 


U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly speaks at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol on December 1, 2025, in Washington, DC. - Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The US Navy has submitted its recommendations on potential punishments for Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over his participation in a video that reminded US troops they have a duty to refuse illegal orders, a Pentagon official told CNN on Thursday.

Those recommendations have been submitted to the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel “where they are providing a legal review and input,” the official said.

CNN has reached out to Kelly’s office for comment. It was not immediately clear what recommendations were included in the report.

Late last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requested advice from the Navy Secretary, who oversees the military branch Kelly served in for more than two decades, on how to proceed to potentially punish Kelly for participating in the video, which Hegseth has claimed amounted to serious violations of the military’s code of justice.

“I am referring this, and any other related matters, for your review, consideration and disposition as you see fit,” Hegseth wrote in a memo to the Navy secretary, dated November 25.

In the video that triggered the Trump administration’s calls for consequences, six Democratic lawmakers said that “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home,” and repeatedly urged the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

Although the video didn’t reference what orders service members might be receiving that would potentially be illegal, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have raised concerns repeatedly about the legality of US military strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and the US military’s deployment to cities over the protest of governors.

The Trump administration has argued that by emphasizing service members’ legal duty to disobey unlawful orders, Kelly and the other Democratic lawmakers were inciting troops to disobey lawful orders. President Donald Trump has called the video “seditious behavior at the highest level.”

Kelly’s involvement in the video is under “review” by the Pentagon, rather than subject to a formal investigation, meaning military police are not involved, a source familiar with Hegseth’s thinking previously told CNN.

Behind closed doors, Hegseth has been weighing his options to punish Kelly for participating in the video, ones that range from reducing the retired US Navy captain’s rank and pension to prosecuting him under military law, CNN has reported.

In his various public messages, Hegseth has suggested Kelly’s comments violated several statutes of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which lays out legal requirements for those in the military.

In Kelly, Hegseth sees a critic worth making an example of, and he could technically use the military justice system to do so, the source familiar with Hegseth’s thinking said. Unlike the other five Democrats who appeared in the video, Kelly is a military retiree — meaning he served long enough to receive a pension, and thus, is still beholden to the UCMJ, including its restrictions on free speech, legal experts told CNN.

Kelly could be recalled to active service and court-martialed because of that status, but doing so over his role in the video would be extraordinary, legal experts said. That’s because not only has the UCMJ mainly been used in recent years to prosecute former service members who commit crimes overseas outside of US civil jurisdiction, but also because Kelly is a US senator.

 Priest says sisters slated for deportation are Christians who could face persecution by Iran

WASHINGTON (RNS) — ‘We all feel a wound in our body of Christ, knowing what’s happening to them,’ said the Rev. Fran Gardner-Smith.

Tehran is shrouded in air pollution, in Iran, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Jack Jenkins and Aleja Hertzler-McCainDecember 9, 2025
RNS

WASHINGTON (RNS) — When sisters Mahan and Mozhan Motahari first came to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in McLean, Virginia, in 2022, they were “deeply joyful,” said the Rev. Fran Gardner-Smith, the church’s rector. In Iran, their home country where they first encountered Christianity, they would have risked death, imprisonment or torture to be baptized publicly because it’s illegal for Muslims to convert.

But in Virginia, they were “finally able to practice their faith in the open,” Gardner-Smith told Religion News Service.

“They are regular hosts of our fellowship time after church,” she said, adding that the Maryland-based sisters were baptized in 2022, the same year they arrived in the U.S. “They are regulars at worship. They bring other members of their family with them sometimes. We have a pumpkin patch in the fall and so they’ve volunteered with the pumpkin patch.”

But the priest said she and her congregation were shocked when U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a photo of the two young women Wednesday (Dec. 3) on X and other social media platforms. In a caption, the agency claimed the pair had been arrested at an airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands when the women were “determined to be illegally present in the U.S.”

A Dec. 3, 2025, social media post by U.S. Customs and Border Protection about the arrest of Mahan and Mozhan Motahari. (Screen grab)

“No fun in the sun when you are unlawfully present,” the post read, continuing “ … the two women were arrested and transported to be processed for removal.”

The government agency’s post has rocked the small congregation, Gardner-Smith said, leaving the community — which includes other people from Iran — “gutted.”

“We all feel a wound in our body of Christ, knowing what’s happening to them,” Gardner-Smith said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But Parastoo G. Zahedi, a Virginia-based immigration lawyer now representing the sisters, rejected the claim that they were in the U.S. illegally. The Motaharis received notice that they were allowed to stay in the U.S. as their asylum claims are processed, Zahedi said, and had twice received employment authorization documents — the most current of which were valid through 2030. They were in the U.S. Virgin Islands, she said, on a family trip.

Zahedi also noted that she was alarmed by CBP’s social media post, as by publicly sharing images of the women, the government potentially heightened the risks they face back in Iran.

“What bothered me more than anything else is that they’re seeking asylum protection from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and I first saw the sharing of their information on Iranian social media sites,” she said. “Now, there are pictures of them without hijab, and it’s now common knowledge that they are in the U.S. seeking asylum.”

Zahedi added, “That’s something we expect the government to hold in confidence.”

The sisters’ arrest and potential deportation follows previous reports that President Donald Trump’s administration is deporting Iranian Christians with active asylum claims. This issue garnered widespread attention in June, when a dramatic video was shared widely on social media showing masked federal agents in Los Angeles detaining two Iranian Christians. The video — which was filmed by the couple’s pastor, Ara Torosian — showed one officer standing over one of the arrested as she lay convulsing on the ground, having what Torosian described as a panic attack.

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RELATED: Pastor films as masked federal agents arrest Iranian Christian asylum-seekers in LA

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In the footage, Torosian can be heard telling an officer that at least one of the two people being detained had an asylum claim. The agent responded: “It doesn’t matter, sir, we’re just following orders, he’s got a warrant.”

Pastor Ara Torosian draws attention to detained Iranian Christians while

on a hunger strike in front of the White House, July 23, 2025, in Washington

. (Photo by David Ian Klein, File)

Torosian later visited lawmakers in Washington and staged a hunger strike to protest the detention of what he claimed were around 200 Iranian Christians in immigration custody. The topic made headlines again in late September and early October, when roughly 100 Iranians living in the U.S. were deported on a flight to Iran. In a Facebook post, Torosian claimed the flight included “an estimated 15 Iranian Christian converts, along with political and ethnic asylum seekers.”

On Sunday, another plane carried around 50 Iranians deported by the Trump administration to Iran, according to The New York Times. 

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RELATED: LA pastor on hunger strike to protest ICE’s detainment of Iranian Christians

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The targeting of Iranians in the U.S. by the Trump administration ramped up after the U.S. launched military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites this summer in support of Israel. But allegations of arresting and deporting Iranian Christians signals a shift for the president and the Republican Party, which has long referred to the persecution of Christians in Iran when criticizing the country.

In a 2020 speech during his first term at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump highlighted a woman who was imprisoned in Iran for converting to Christianity, while explaining how he believed his administration was “standing up for persecuted Christians and religious minorities all around the world.”

As for the Motahari sisters, Zahedi said the two are “very distressed” as they remain in detention in Florida. Hoping to have the case expedited, Zahedi said she plans to continue “aggressively” arguing their case in court.

Meanwhile, Gardner-Smith said St. Thomas congregants prayed for the sisters over the weekend, and the church’s intentional prayer ministry is praying for them daily. The priest also met privately with Iranian members of her congregation after church, helping answer their questions. While members of the community are deeply supportive of the sisters, she said, they are also now “anxious about whether they would face danger as well.”

Clergy from the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida are working to see if they can visit the pair in their detention, although a church official said they “are facing significant hurdles.” Church leaders have also been in contact with several lawmakers, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who is Episcopalian. A spokesperson for Van Hollen’s office confirmed to RNS on Tuesday that his team “is in touch with the family as of this morning, but we do not share details of constituent cases as a matter of privacy.”

But in the meantime, Gardner-Smith said she worries the sisters will be “imprisoned, tortured and killed” if they are returned to Iran.

“For folks who come from Iran and who are Christian, their lives are really at risk if they go back,” Gardner-Smith said.