This new "freedom" hurts—quite badly.
Unlike the joy and celebration that accompanied his release from an Iranian prison in January this year, Pastor Saeed Abedini was downcast after announcing another kind of personal "release"—the end of his 12-year marriage with his wife Naghmeh.
On Wednesday, Saeed announced on social media that he and his wife are divorcing.
"My heart is deeply saddened to be sharing the news that Naghmeh and I will be divorcing. She has been my wife of 12 years and she will always be the wonderful mother to our amazing children," Saeed posted on his Facebook page. "There are no words to describe the ongoing effect of the trauma I experienced and my family has experienced both during and in the aftermath of my imprisonment."
Naghmeh was actually the first to announce the divorce with a brief message on her Facebook page at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
She wrote: "It is with a heavy and broken heart that I inform all of you who have prayed and wept with our family the last few years, that Saeed has rejected counseling for anger and abuse and has filed for a divorce. There will be a time to share more fully, but for now, we appreciate your prayers."
Twelve hours later, at around 6 a.m on Wednesday, Saeed made his own announcement of the divorce in a long statement he posted on his Facebook page.
"While we have experienced struggles, she, along with my children will forever be my heroes, both for what they had to deal with during my imprisonment in Iran and for how they never gave up fighting for my freedom," he wrote.
"My personal pain, and our family's struggle, does not diminish my commitment to Christ or my resolve to preach his Gospel to Iranians and to Muslims around the world," the Iranian-American pastor stated.
Saeed languished in an Iranian prison for more than three years after being arrested in September 2012 on charges of undermining national security by holding private Christian gatherings in private residences in Iran in the early 2000s. A Christian sharing his faith with Muslims is an act considered illegal and worthy of death in Iran, according to CBN News.
In January 2013, he was sentenced to eight years in prison where he was reportedly subjected to psychological and physical torture.
Naghmeh relentlessly fought for his release, even speaking before Congress to press the U.S. government to help her husband regain his freedom.
Saeed was eventually released from his Iranian cell along with three other American prisoners.
However, his homecoming was bittersweet. Months before his release, Naghmeh revealed to friends and supporters that their marriage was on the rocks. She actually filed a domestic relations case against him shortly after he returned to the U.S., claiming "abuse" in their marriage even before he was imprisoned in Iran, according to The Christian Post.
"I do deeply regret that I hid from the public the abuse that I have lived with for most of our marriage and I ask your forgiveness. I sincerely had hoped that this horrible situation Saeed has had to go through would bring about the spiritual change needed in both of us to bring healing to our marriage," Naghmeh wrote in a Facebook post last year.
"Tragically, the opposite has occurred. Three months ago Saeed told me things he demanded I must do to promote him in the eyes of the public that I simply could not do any longer. He threatened that if I did not the results would be the end of our marriage and the resulting pain this would bring to our children," she added.
