The marriage of an Iranian Christian asylum-seeker to a Swedish pastor last month will not have any impact on her case for the next two years, reports CBN News.
Aideen Strandsson, 37, married Cai Berger on 10 July, but though the marriage is legally recognised, under Swedish law the couple will have to be married for two years for it to change her immigration status.
She told CBN News they had hoped to marry once the case had been resolved but that the process had dragged on.
Strandsson, who took a Swedish surname when she arrived in Sweden from Iran on a work visa in 2014, was refused asylum a year ago and does not yet have a date for an appeal hearing. She is not permitted to work, has no passport, and does not receive any welfare payments.
In June she told World Watch Monitor she had “nightmares every night” that police are following her in order to arrest her and deport her to Iran, where her conversion to Christianity could land her in prison.
She said her close family, who now live in Sweden, believe her case is being deliberately delayed. “I know some people who sent their requests for appeal at the same time as I did, about one year ago. They’ve received an answer to their appeal, but there is no answer for me yet.”
She added: “I don’t think they even care if I’m alive or not.”
Last summer World Watch Monitor reported on the rejection of her claim for asylum. She said at the time that officials at the country’s Migration Board did not believe her life would be in danger if she were sent back to Iran, where converts can face jail. “They said to me it’s your personal life and it’s not our problem if you decided to become a Christian; it’s your problem.”