Dabrina Tamraz grew up as the daughter of a pastor living under the Iranian regime. Alongside church services and bible studies, her childhood memories are tainted by government surveillance, harassment, interrogation, and detention. In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya English, Tamraz tells the story of life as a persecuted Christian in Iran.

"Our family was being followed all the time by Iranian authorities. They even broke into our house. We had spies within the church and at times soldiers standing in front of it. I was detained so many times I’ve lost track of the number,” said Dabrina Tamraz in an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya English.

For 40 years her father, Pastor Victor Tamraz, preached in spite of the persecution. He was frequently arrested and interrogated by Iranian authorities on Sundays just before his scheduled church service. The Tamraz family’s church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church in Tehran, was shut down in 2009 for offering services in the national language of Farsi –prohibited for churches in Iran.

Now Tamraz’s father is banned from the pulpit. He was arrested in 2014, kept in solitary confinement for 65 days, and sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment for "conducting evangelism” and "illegal house church activities,” acts which the Iranian regime considers threats to national security. Tamraz’s mother was arrested for allegedly training church leaders and pastors to act as spies and is appealing a five-year prison sentence. Her brother was arrested for joining a house church and sentenced to a four-month term.

Their detention has drawn international attention to Iran’s persecution of religious minorities. US Vice President Mike Pence publicly called on the Iranian regime during a speech at the US State Department in July to release Tamraz’s father, saying the pastor was sentenced "on contrived charges” related to "his peaceful religious activities.”