Mina Aminoo, 56, said she paid a smuggler to sneak her into the UK because she feared her life was in danger in Iran after police told her: “Be very afraid. You have done a bad thing by having a Bible.”
Terrified, the Christian convert paid a “fixer” £18,000 pounds (more than $30,000) for fake documents, visas and a one-way ticket to the UK; the move reportedly cost her entire life savings. She left behind her home, family and job as a buyer for a food company.
“I was in fear of my life,” Aminoo told the Derby Telegraph. “I had to escape. I thought I was going to be killed. The police were watching me, that’s what they said.”
Aminoo said the fixer told her to fly to London and then to Derby where he had a contact. After landing in the UK and making her way through immigration, Aminoo said she was lost. “I thought Derby was round the corner from London. I thought it was on another street or something.”
Derby is in central England.
Shortly after arriving in Derby, Aminoo started receiving help from a local church and was later given refuge by the Home Office, Britain’s Interior Ministry. All the while, she continued to keep her escape a secret from her friends and family back home in Iran.
“I had to leave my home, my family and my wonderful job,” she said. “I would have been killed if I had stayed in Tehran. The police were watching me and I was scared to talk to anyone. I was unhappy.”
Aminoo said her life in Iran changed when a border guard discovered a Bible in her luggage as she was returning from a trip to Turkey.
“I was told that it was forbidden in Iran for anyone to convert to Christianity and I was asked if I was going to preach the words of the Bible in Iran. I tried to explain that I’d been given the Bible from a woman in the local church in Istanbul—but the police didn’t believe me,” she told the Derby Telegraph.
“They told me to be very afraid. They told me it was a very serious issue. My fingerprints were taken and the men filled out lots of forms.… They wanted to know all kinds of things, like my name, address, telephone number, place of work…. I knew I could be killed because I had the Bible.”
At that moment—which was less than two years ago—Aminoo said she realized she needed to leave the country. “I thought about it and thought about it. In the end, it took me just one month to get stuff arranged,” she said.
Aminoo kept her plans secret from even her friends and family. “I couldn’t tell anyone because I was too scared.”
Her first night in Derby, Aminoo stayed with the man her contact had arranged. The following day, Aminoo was taken to the Persian Cultural Association where she was introduced to Pastor Adam Martin of the International Community Church.
“I met other people from Iran and I told them what I’d done. It was an emotional time and I was very shattered. I had nowhere to live and nowhere to go—but I knew that at least I was out of danger. My life was not at risk. I was not going to be killed for what I believed in. “I told the church I was a Christian and I was welcomed. I was safe.”
The church pastor and his wife offered her a place to stay at their house in Derby. Others members of the church helped out in other ways—from donating clothes to giving her money.
Aminoo said, “When I finally got a flat, they came with their paintbrushes and helped me to make it a home.”
Once Aminoo was settled, she called her mother and sister in Iran. She told them she had left the county and explained why she had immigrated to Derby.
“My mother couldn’t talk to me after that. She’s a Muslim and she was very ashamed of me. She said that I couldn’t do that to her. She was very angry and upset… It was ages before we talked again,” she said, adding that the only help and support she received from her family was from her brother, Majid, who lives in the United States.