IRAN: Religious issues and persecutions– Monthly Digest January

  

 Christians

Peaceful Iranians arrested in Turkey for publicly manifesting their religious beliefs

European times (01.02.2025) – On 5 January 2025, police officers in Karaman (Turkey) raided the home of an Iranian couple looking for an opportunity to apply for asylum in an EU country and belonging to the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light in Iran, a Shia-derivative new religious movement founded in 1999.

As Pooria Lotfiillanou, the head of the family, was then absent, they only found his wife Ebtighaa and their six-month-old child. They arrested both and took them to the local police station, leaving them in detention under harsh conditions.

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European Parliament: ‘Christians face persecution after conversion’ in Iran

Article 18 (31.01.2025) – The European Parliament has included specific mention of the pressures Christian converts face in its latest resolution on Iran.

The resolution, adopted last week, “condemns the Iranian regime’s … persecution of minorities”, including “Christians facing persecution after conversion”. 

It adds that Christian converts, as well as Kurds, Baluchis, and Baha’is, are among the groups “facing ethnic and religious discrimination, arrest and violations of fundamental rights aimed at silencing dissent”.

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Iranian Christians faced sixfold increase in prison sentences in 2024: report

Christianpost (24.01.2025) – Three Christians rearrested for their faith in Iran were subjected to torture and asked to write letters renouncing their belief in Jesus amid the reality of a sixfold increase in prison sentences for Christians in the Islamic Republic in 2024, a new report states.

Article 18, a London-based religious freedom nongovernmental organization, released an annual report this month chronicling rights violations against Christians in Iran.

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Judges responsible for imprisonment, exile and even execution of Christians killed

Article 18 (21.01.2025) – Two infamous judges counted among Iran’s so-called “Judges of Death” for handing out sentences of execution to opponents of the regime were murdered by an unidentified assailant in Tehran’s Supreme Court on Saturday.

The assassinations of Mohammad Moghiseh, 68, and Ali Razini, 71, prompted numerous former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners to share their experiences in court with the two judges and remembrances of individuals executed under their rulings.

Moghiseh presided over the cases of many Christians during his time as a Revolutionary Court judge, sentencing at least 16 Christians to a combined total of nearly 100 years in prison.

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Iran’s Christians experienced sixfold increase in prison sentences in 2024, report finds

Article 18 (20.01.2025) – Christians in Iran were sentenced to a combined total of over 250 years in prison in 2024, a sixfold increase compared to 2023, our newly released annual reportreveals.

Ninety-six Christians were sentenced to a combined 263 years in prison last year, compared with 22 Christians sentenced to a total of 43.5 years in 2023.

The reason for the remarkable increase was partly due to the “huge uptick in arrests in the second half of 2023, which required judicial processing”, the report explains.

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Christian converts in Sweden: protests, migration policies and UN condemnation

Article 18 (17.01.2025 ) – The UN Committee Against Torture has four times found Sweden guilty of violation its convention for its decisions to deport Christian converts, underscoring persistent concerns about the country’s immigration practices.

Such decisions, widely criticised by civil rights organisations, expose systemic flaws within Sweden’s migration system.

A recent report by a Swedish government institution scrutinised the Migration Agency’s decision-making process regarding converts, as well as members of the LGBT community, revealing significant legal and procedural shortcomings.

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Baha’is

125 European parliamentarians join UN experts to condemn escalating persecution of Iranian Baha’i women

BIC (30.01.2025) – One hundred and twenty-five Members of European Parliament and national parliaments across Europe have united to support a powerful statement by United Nations Special Rapporteurs and UN Working Group experts condemning the escalating persecution of Baha’i women in Iran.

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Targeted for belief: Sirus Zabihi’s lifelong struggle as a Baha’i in Iran

Iran press watch (27.01.2025) – Sirus Zabihi-Moghadam, a 64-year-old member of the Baha’i religious minority, was transferred to Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad last week to begin serving a seven-year sentence.

This is not his first time in prison; he has been repeatedly arrested and jailed under the rule of the Islamic Republic.

The government has intensified its campaign of arrests and convictions against Baha’i citizens, seeking to normalize these repressive actions.

Zabihi-Moghadam’s case reflects the plight of thousands of Iranian Baha’is who continue to face religious persecution by the state.

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Two days before the UN reviews Iran’s human rights record, the Iranian government detains 11 Baha’i women for their faith

Iran Bahai Persecution (22.01.2025) – The Islamic Republic of Iran’s latest outrage against the Baha’is of Iran occurred early this morning when security forces arrested eleven Baha’i women, without arrest warrants or prior notification, in a series of shocking home raids.

The detained women—several of whom are mothers of young children and infants, or caregivers to aging parents—have faced previous convictions for their faith.

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Ali Razini’s campaign against Baha’i faith in Mashhad

Iran press watch (21.01.2025) – During Ali Razini’s leadership of Mashhad’s Revolutionary Court from 1981 to 1985, the persecution of Baha’is took several systematic forms.

Under his oversight, the court conducted rapid trials where defendants were frequently denied legal representation.

Many Baha’is were arrested multiple times, often without formal charges, and held in detention for long periods.

The court’s focus was particularly intense on Baha’i educators and community leaders. Charges typically were around religious identity rather than specific criminal acts.

Those brought before the court faced intense pressure to abandon their faith.

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UN human rights experts concertedly warn that Iranian Baha’i women face escalating and intersectional persecution

BIC (20.01.2025) – A group of 18 United Nations human rights experts issued a press release on 23 December 2024(link is external)

 expressing deep concern over the apparent “increase” in the systematic persecution of women from the Baha’i religious minority in Iran. The press release comes after a joint allegation letter by the 18 experts, addressed to the Iranian government, in which they strongly condemned Iran’s disproportionate targeting of Baha’i women.

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Iranian Baha’i poet faces return to Evin Prison after surgery

Iran Press watch (10.01.2025) – Prominent Baha’i poet Mahvash Sabet, 71, may soon be sent back to Evin Prison in Tehran following open-heart surgery, sparking alarm among human rights organizations and activists.

The Baha’i International Community has urged Iranian authorities to release Sabet unconditionally, warning of the serious risks to her life if she is sent back to prison.

Activists worldwide have rallied around her case, organizing a social media campaign under the hashtag #FreeMahvash.

Despite having recently had open heart surgery and worsening health condition, Iranian authorities have granted her only one month of medical leave and expect her to return to prison—a decision that has provoked global campaign.

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