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Her Children's Painful Questions Motivates the Fight for Saeed

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NEW YORK -- Naghmeh Abedini is in New York City this week, continuing the fight to secure her husband Pastor Saeed Abedini's release from an Iranian prison.

The latest stop in that battle is the United Nations, where she'd hoped to secure a meeting with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani during his seven-hour visit to the United States to address the U.N. General Assembly.

Rouhani recently said he would work to secure the release of Pastor Abedini and other jailed Americans if the United States would release 19 Iranians jailed for violating sanctions against Iran.

Naghmeh responded to that offer, saying her "husband is not collateral" and that he has done nothing wrong.

In the end, Rouhani departed the United States before she was able to reach him. She did manage, however, to get messages to the Iranian delegation, which is still in town for meetings at the United Nations.

"They know I am here," she told CBN News. "They have received my notes and letters. That has been confirmed that they have received it. But they have not confirmed a meeting with me yet."

Meanwhile, Naghmeh suggested it is the couple's children that have had the most difficult time coping with the years their father has been spent locked up.

"I don't understand it," she said. "I don't know how I get up every morning, how I am able to function as a single mom with two kids who are hurting. Every time I travel there is fear of what if she doesn't return and come back to them. They are hurting and I have to leave them at time when they are hurting the most."

"In the last three years, they have not had a father and they have had a mom who is traveling a lot. So, it is very difficult; it is very painful," she explained. "But God has given me the grace and the strength."

Reflecting on Saeed's three years in jail, Naghmeh noted that his children have been living without him for half of their lives -- and they're now beginning to ask the tough questions.

"When they were toddlers it was not as hard," Naghmeh said. "But they are starting to ask me the hard questions of 'Why doesn't God answer?', 'Why we have cried so much?', 'We asked Him and we have begged Him,'  and Daddy loves Jesus -- why wouldn't He want to free Him now?"

Naghmeh plans to stay in New York City as soon as the United Nations is in session and there is a chance she will be able to plead her case to someone who will listen.

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About The Author

Efrem Graham
Efrem
Graham

Efrem Graham is an award-winning journalist who came to CBN News from the ABC-owned and operated station in Toledo, Ohio. His most recent honor came as co-anchor of the newscast that earned the station’s morning news program its first Emmy Award. Efrem was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, but his formal television and journalism career was born across the Hudson River in New York City. He began as an NBC Page and quickly landed opportunities to work behind-the-scenes in local news, network news, entertainment, and the network’s Corporate Communications Department. His work earned him the NBC