A BISHOP has spoken about the murder of her brother in the wake of the Iranian revolution which led to her fleeing to the UK as a child.
Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Deqhani appeared on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs today, alongside host Lauren Laverne.
During the segment she spoke about how her 24-year-old brother Bahram was murdered on May 6, 1980, when she was just 14.
Rev Francis-Dehqani said she found out the news "purely by accident" while at school.
“My mother was in Tehran at the time, and my brother was in Tehran as well, he was teaching at the university there," she said.
“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, to not say anything to me, and I don’t know quite how she did it.”
However, when she went to school, she eventually found out from a classmate who had read the news.
She added: “Two young men ambushed his car and got in.
“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 said: “It came from left field really 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 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.
