Personal Background
Hamid Pourmand is married to Arlet, who is an Assyrian Christian. They have two sons, named Immanuel and David. Under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is illegal for a non-Muslim to serve as a military officer. In spite of this, Hamid Pourmand continued to serve as an officer in the Iranian army. According to his family and Christian acquaintances, Hamid Pourmand was quite open about his Christian faith and never attempted to conceal his religious conversion.
Pourmand frequently served as the volunteer pastor of a congregation of the Assemblies of God Church in Bushehr. At the time of his 2004 arrest, his wife and children were visiting relatives in Tehran. Upon returning to Bushehr, they discovered that their house had been broken into and vandalized. Personal items, such as family papers, documents and photographs had been removed from the family home.
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“Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.”
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