Bishop tells Desert Island Discs of brother’s murder and fleeing from Iran
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The Bishop of Chelmsford will tell Desert Island Discs of how her brother’s murder following the Iranian revolution led to her fleeing to the UK as a child.
The Rt Rev Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani will appear on the BBC Radio 4 show, hosted by Lauren Laverne, on Sunday.
The bishop’s 24-year-old brother Bahram was murdered in the wake of the revolution on May 6 1980, when she was just 14 years old.
Speaking to Laverne, she said she found out the news “purely by accident”.
“I found out, purely by accident, at school,” she said.
“My mother was in Tehran at the time, and my brother was in Tehran as well, he was teaching at the university there.
“He had been killed on May 6. My eldest sister who was looking after me found out very late at night, after I had gone to bed. Because there was so much uncertainty around, she decided, and I completely understand it…
“She decided to not say anything to me, and I don’t know quite how she did it.”
However, when she went to school, she found out from a classmate who had read the news.
“Two young men ambushed his car, got in,” she said.
“An eyewitness later told us that they had a brief conversation, and then one of them pulled a gun and killed him.
“We’ve spent a lifetime coming to terms with it. In a sense, it was his sacrifice that brought us here. I don’t think my mum and my sister and I would have left if we hadn’t had a very good reason to.
“So he gave us the gift of a chance of a new life in this country.”
Ms Francis-Dehqani moved to the UK, where her father, the Anglican Bishop of Iran, was staying on a visit.
She spent the rest of her teenage years in the UK, attending Nottingham University, where she studied music.
Ms Francis-Dehqani then worked at the BBC before returning to her faith in her late 20s.
She was ordained as a priest, before becoming the first minority ethnic woman to be ordained as a bishop in the UK.
“It came from left field really,” she said.
“And yet, in a very strange way, it made sense. I had the feeling that it was clearly not about what I had done, in terms of experience in the Church, it was about my life experiences, and what that might have to contribute now within the context of the Church of England.
“I feel like I represent something way beyond myself.”
Among the songs chosen by the bishop was Sinead O’Connor’s Take Me To Church, which she said reminded her of her Irish husband, and Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane.
She added that she would take the 10th century epic Persian poem The Book of Kings with her onto the desert island, as well as her photograph albums.
Desert Island Discs will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11.15am.
