(LifeSiteNews) — Persecution against Christians, Jews, and other religious minorities at the hands of the state continues apace in Iran, according to a new high-level report.
Issuing its international update report at the end of July, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) highlighted the “Islamic Republic of Iran’s continued violations of freedom of religion or belief both domestically and abroad.”
The commission had already urged the U.S. government to designate Iran as a “country of particular concern,” writing in its prior report that “the government also continued to systematically harass, intimidate, and target religious minorities through its arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, forced closure of businesses, destruction of property, and promotion of online hate speech.”
Now – as documented in the commission’s update to the annual report – the situation of religious persecution at the hands of the government appears to remain an ever-present crisis. “Iran has continued its crackdown on Christians, in particular Christian converts from Islam whom the regime targets for their religious activity and promoting so-called ‘Zionist Christianity’ in an effort to broadly link Christians to Israel,” the report reads.
Despite only making up less than 1 percent of the Iranian population, the persecution against Christians is noted as particularly stringent.
“For exercising their right of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including for changing their religion or belief, Christian converts from Islam face grave danger to their personal safety in Iran,” the report reads.
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This anti-Christian persecution seems particularly levied against women, the USCIRF wrote.
Two people were sentenced to 12 years in jail after a house raid revealed they were in possession of Bibles.
A woman who converted to Christianity was denied medical treatment in jail, after she was imprisoned in April for “acting against national security through connections with Zionist Christian organizations.”
Another Christian leader, Joseph Shahbazian, has been held in jail without charge or trial. He was previously arrested for his underground church activities, described by the state as “leading an organization that aims to disrupt national security.”
One Armenian Christian, Hakop Gochumyan, was handed a 10-year jail term in 2024 for “engaging in deviant proselytizing activity” and for his leading role in “a network of evangelical Christianity.” The USCIRF reported that in May he wrote a letter “detailing Iranian authorities’ cruel treatment of him while in detention, including psychological torture, denial of due process, and threats to his family.”
But it is not just Christians who are targeted by the Iranian authorities. Jews, minority Sunni Muslims, and other even smaller groups such as Sikhs are also persecuted.
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Though the government officially recognizes Judaism, in practice the reality is very different. In fact, the USCIRF wrote, the state “publicly demonizes Jews as enemies of Islam, denies and distorts the history of the Holocaust, surveils Jewish houses of worship, establishes Jews-only polling stations to intimidate community members, coerces community representatives to vocalize support for the government, and holds Jews collectively responsible for Israeli military actions.”
Iran has especially found its way into international focus due to the protests against the mandatory hijab laws. Women who have resisted the laws have faced police clampdown, arrests, interrogations, and lengthy jail terms.
Undaunted by any international scrutiny over the state response, Iran has pushed ahead with such actions, now employing technology to enforce a police surveillance state. The USCIRF writes:
The Iranian government is leveraging more sophisticated tools and surveillance technologies – including the installation of cameras on residential and commercial buildings and equipping over 50,000 police officers with body cameras – to enforce mandatory hijab laws. In Isfahan, authorities have reportedly started to use contactless payment readers and surveillance cameras to identify women who defy compulsory hijab. Authorities are also sending threatening messages to women who dissent from religious hijab laws and to their families as well.
Summarizing these findings, the USCIRF urged the U.S. government to formally recognize “Iran’s systematic, ongoing, and egregious policies and actions” as requiring the national status of a country of particular concern.
The official designation from the U.S. State Department denotes a country in which the government “has engaged in or tolerated ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom.’” The State Department last designated Iran as such on December 29, 2023.
Iran has been consistently highlighted as one of the most dangerous countries to be a Christian, especially since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that saw the overthrow of the reigning monarchical Pahlavi family.
Muslims who convert to Christianity are targeted for persecution, with many having to live an “underground” life. Aid to the Church in Need reported that such Christians are described by the state as “undermining Iran’s Islamic regime.”
Speaking in light of the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, Tehran’s Cardinal Dominique Mathieu warned against imposing methods of peace in the region.
“Peace cannot be imposed by coercion or force, for it is not the absence of conflict or a balance of power, but a state of harmony built on justice, love, and mutual respect,” Mathieu wrote to this correspondent. “It must be freely embraced, nurtured, and built.”
