{"id":30744,"date":"2022-03-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/reports\/general-briefing-iran-5648\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:37:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:37:58","slug":"general-briefing-iran-5648","status":"publish","type":"reports","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/reports\/general-briefing-iran-5648\/","title":{"rendered":"Informe general: Ir\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Legal framework<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Article 13 of Iran\u2019s constitution recognises Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Judaism, while Article 14 states that \u201cthe government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and all Muslims are duty-bound to treat non-Muslims in conformity with ethical norms and the principles of Islamic justice and equity, and to respect their human rights.\u201d Article 23 forbids \u201cthe investigation of individuals\u2019 beliefs\u201d adding that \u201cno one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.\u201d Furthermore, Article 38 prohibits \u201cany kind of torture used to extract an admission of guilt or to obtain information is forbidden. \u2026 Any person infringing this principle is to be punished in accordance with the law\u201d. Finally, Article 39 states that \u201caspersion of the dignity of and respect due to any person who has been arrested or put in detention or imprisoned or exiled by command of the law is forbidden in any form, and is liable to punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran is also party to several international covenants protecting the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), but religious minorities are viewed with suspicion and treated as a threat by a theocratic system that imposes a strict interpretation of Shi\u2019a Islam. Baha\u2019is, Christians, Sufi Dervishes and Sunni Muslims can experience a variety of violations, including harassment, property seizure, desecration of burial sites, torture, imprison, and even extrajudicial execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 18 June 2021 Ebrahim Raisi was elected President of Iran in an election marred by irregularities, and in which moderates were barred from standing. Raisi, who took office on 5 August 2021, is infamous for his role in a death commission which forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret thousands of political dissidents in 1998. It is likely restrictions on minority religious and belief groups will intensify under Raisi\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violations against Christians<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The targeting of Muslim converts to Christianity has been escalating since 2009, often accompanied by anti-Christian rhetoric from senior officials. Any gathering of Christians, including social gatherings such as birthday or engagement parties, is viewed as potential house church activity, and is subject to raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Christians are currently serving excessive sentences on unfounded charges relating to \u2018national security,\u2019 \u2018extremism\u2019 and \u2018propaganda.\u2019 Legal processes are often presided over by judges notorious for miscarriages of justice and are marred by repeated delays to trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those currently imprisoned is Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who was arrested along with three other members of the Church of Iran during a series of raids by security agents on Christian homes in Rasht in May 2016. He is currently serving a six-year sentence, and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has published<\/a>an opinion that his continued detention is arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 10 November 2021 Pastor Amin Khaki of the Church of Iran denomination in Karaj was summoned to begin serving a five-year prison sentence. He was convicted of \u2018engaging in propaganda against the Islamic regime\u2019 alongside fellow Christians Milad Goudarzi and Alireza Nourmohammadi in June 2021, after they were initially charged with \u201csectarian activities\u201d under a new amendment to the Iranian penal code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor Matthias (Abdulreza Ali) Haghnejad, who had been released on 30 December 2021 after nearly three years in prison on charges of \u201cendangering state security\u201d and \u201cpromoting Zionist Christianity,\u201d was rearrested on 15 January 2022 on charges of \u201cacting against the security of the country by forming a group and propagating Christianity outside the church and in the house church, and giving information to the enemies of Islam\u201d, which were initially levelled against him in 2014. Eight other members of the Church of Iran who had been convicted alongside him were released on 1 January 2022. All nine men were acquitted on 28 February 2022; however, Pastor Haghnejad still faces a six-year sentence on the second set of charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Christians have been forced to flee the country following harassment by the Iranian authorities. For example, in August 2020 Pastor Victor Bet-Tamraz and his wife Shamiram Isavi were informed that their appeals against sentences of ten and five years respectively had failed. The pastor and his wife had been convicted of national security-related crimes for normal church activities. Pastor Bet-Tamraz was charged with \u2018conducting evangelism\u2019 and \u2018illegal house church activities,\u2019 while Shamiram Isavi was charged with \u2018membership of a group with the purpose of disrupting national security\u2019 and \u2018gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security\u2019. The couple subsequently fled Iran and are now safe in a European country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a response to concerns<\/a>raised by UN experts regarding Iran\u2019s \u201ccontinued systematic persecution\u201d of Christians, the government responded<\/a>that it had taken legal action against members of \u201cenemy groups\u201d and \u201cprivate churches\u201d that belong to a \u201cZionist Christian cult\u201d with \u201canti-security purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violations against other religious and belief minorities<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Baha\u2019i community, Iran\u2019s largest non-Muslim religious minority, does not enjoy official recognition. Along with the Sufi Dervish community, Baha\u2019is have been increasingly targeted with hate speech, and they face a raft of discriminatory and repressive policies, including with regard to access to education and burial sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2020 two Iranian courts ruled that ancestral land belonging to Baha\u2019i families in the village of Ivel in Mazandaran province could be confiscated because of the community\u2019s \u201cperverse ideology\u201d, which nullified the \u201clegitimacy in their ownership\u201d of any property. In July 2021 the Baha\u2019i International Community Reportado<\/a>that it had documented 676 arrests of Baha\u2019is and summons to prison under the presidency of Raisi\u2019s predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, and that 47 arrests had taken place in the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-Baha\u2019i and anti-Semitic rhetoric are widely used by the clerical establishment, despite a decline in the use of anti-Semitic narratives by government officials following the 2014 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries (China, France, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany), later abrogated by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executions<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Iran remains one of the few countries to execute minors, homosexuals and women claiming self-defence against rapists. Most victims are hanged, often in public. A large proportion of those executed are members of minority religious or ethnic groups, particularly Sunni Muslims and Kurds. Political opponents are often accused of being foreign agents or spies, while many from minority ethnic and religious communities often face execution following conviction on drug-related charges. Many are executed after trials that fall short of international fair trial standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommendations<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

To the government of Iran:<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n