A Christian convert facing deportation said she could be executed if she returns to Iran.

Asylum seeker Tara Aryan, who has lived in Brighton for two years and is engaged to an Englishman, has been taken to a removal centre and told she will be flown to Iran on Friday.

Under Iranian law she could face imprisonment or death for abandoning Islam and converting to Christianity.

Church leaders and her MP have written to the Home Office asking it to reconsider her deportation as her fiancé and solicitor make a last-ditch bid to set her free. They say the Home Office has never acknowledged evidence of her baptism or responded to her latest application for asylum.

Miss Aryan, 28, who was baptised last year at St Michael and All Angels in Brighton, arrived here as a student in February 2006. She applied for asylum but was refused. She made a fresh application but said she had never received a decision.

Every month since her arrival Miss Aryan has reported to an East Croydon immigration centre. Last Thursday she was detained and taken to Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire.

She has been told she will be deported at 6.45pm on Friday. Her solicitor, Martin Penrose, of Brighton Housing Trust, is seeking a judicial review of the decision.

Miss Aryan's fiancé, a 35-year-old design engineer who did not wish to be named, said: "Both our lives are up in the air.

Someone I love and care for has been plucked away and I feel totally helpless."

He said Miss Aryan's passport had expired since it had been in the Home Office's hands and she was unlikely to be issued new papers in Iran.

The couple, who met at a party in November, were due to be married on July 2. Miss Aryan, not her real name, said: "I haven't done anything wrong. I am locked in the centre and they are going to send me back on Friday."

Hove MP Celia Barlow has written to Immigration Minister Liam Byrne asking for her to be given asylum. She said: "Christians in Iran face persecution and there have been high-profile instances of imprisonment under dire conditions and torture."

The Right Rev John Hind, Bishop of Chichester, has supported the application.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "We do not comment on individual cases.

Any application for leave to remain in the UK is considered fully by trained caseworkers.

We would not remove someone where there is an application or appeal outstanding. The agency only enforces the return of individuals where we and the independent courts are satisfied they are not in need of international protection."