Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani: ‘I don’t want to be a controversialist, but I have to speak out’

Rt Rev Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani arrived in the UK as a refugee from Iran following her brother’s assassination. Her extraordinary life story has given her a passion for justice and an inability to keep quiet, despite what it might cost her

The Bishop of Chelmsford, has no desire to be “a controversialist”. 

“I’m not looking to stir the pot,” Bishop Guli tells me, as we dive into yet another hot button topic during our hour-long conversation. So far, we’ve tackled feminism, cross-cultural mission, colonialism, religious persecution, female leadership in the Church and refugees. Now, we’re moving on to the Middle East.

Yet Bishop Guli is no polemicist. Softly spoken and thoughtful, the cost of the “deeply personal” attacks that come her way every time she speaks out on an issue show clearly on her face as we talk. She is, she says, increasingly frustrated at…