Despite the oppression by the Islamic regime and some suggest because of it, Iran is experiencing a Christian revival and many believe it is home to the fastest-growing church in the world.

This growth is happening largely through its house church movement, where Iranians secretly meet in homes across the country to avoid persecution.

But according to a documentary, Sheep Among Wolves, released in 2019 by Frontier Alliance International (FIA), one of the odd characteristics of the Iranian church is that women play a prominent role.

FAI estimated that 55% of house church leaders are female, and adds that many of the key leaders in the movement are also women

“The Iranian awakening is a rapidly-reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property or buildings, has no central leadership, and is predominantly led by women,” FAI reports in its documentary.

According to an article by CBN, Open Doors International estimates that there are 1.2 million believers in Iran which has a total population of 87 million people.

This is despite its Islamic-dominated government that has purposefully targeted Christians for years in order to stop the spread of the Christian faith.

Christianity’s growth is not due to organized evangelistic campaigns but by word of mouth through its house church movement.

“Due to their risky circumstances, recent Christian converts are enthusiastically communicating about their changed lives with friends and loved ones — but quietly and carefully. However, their discreet but persistent witness accounts for the extraordinary number of new Iranian believers, who meet in small house churches,” Lela Gilbert, Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council, told CBN.

Curiously, because of the persecution most house churches are small, with four to five people per group, so if one is infiltrated it affects a minimal number of believers. But the smaller size suggests there are well over 100,000 house churches in Iran and could potentially be as many as 300,000.

In a recent article, CBN also focussed on the impact women are having in Iran. One of the women featured was Marziyeh Amirizadeh who served as a leader of a house church in Iran and actually ended up in one of Iran’s most brutal incarceration centers, Evin Prison, because of her faith.

Because of the persecution, Amirizadeh has since fled Iran to the US. But she shared with CBN how God spoke to her as she was reading the Bible.

“And one day I was reading the Bible and God show me that Iran is like a big desert. There is now seed in this land. And He said, ‘Plant some seeds, then I will grow it with the power of the Holy Spirit,” Amirizadeh told CBN.

This led Amirizadeh to smuggle 200,000 New Testaments into Iran, which ultimately played a role in her imprisonment in Evin Prison.

She called on Christians around the world to pray for believers in Iran.

“A great awakening has started in Iran,” Amirizadeah said.

There is an interesting verse in Philippians that in some ways describes the influential role women are having in spreading the Gospel in Iran:

² I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. ³ Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 4:2-3 ESV)

In this verse, Paul speaks of two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who were at loggerheads with each other, but who at the same time co-labored with Paul in sharing the Gospel.

The Greek word for labored, sunathleō, describes ‘wrestling together’, ‘striving’, and ‘cooperating vigorously.’ These two women were actively working with Paul to spread the Gospel.

Some have even suggested the two could have been filling the role of a fivefold ministry of evangelists. Whether that is true or not, they had a vital role in the house church movement in Philippi.

READ: Christian ‘Great Awakening’ Exploding in Iran: ‘Visions, Dreams, and Miraculously Answered Prayers’ AND Sheep among Wolves’: Documentary looks at fast-growing Christian movement in Iran, led by women: Christian Post AND Fastest growing church has no building, no central leadership, and is mostly led by women: God Reports