Intensification of repression of Christians in Iran in 2025, severe sentences against the Christian faith
As the year 2025 draws to a close, dozens of Christian citizens in Iran face long-term sentences and social exclusion on security and religious propaganda charges.
According to the latest reports from human rights organizations, including Article 18 and Iran Human Rights, this year has witnessed the most intense wave of judicial prosecutions against Christian citizens in the last decade.
In the first half of the year alone, at least 40 Christians in the cities of Tehran, Tabriz, Varamin, and Babol were arrested or summoned to revolutionary courts. They had previously been charged with “acting against national security” and “propagating Zionist Christianity” for participating in home gatherings known as “house churches” or possessing Bibles.
Narges Nasri, a pregnant Christian citizen living in Tehran, was sentenced in March 2024 to 16 years in prison and a two-year ban on leaving the country. Mehran Shamloui and Abbas Sori were also sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison in the same case.
In Tabriz, two citizens were sentenced to 12 years in prison each for possessing multiple copies of the Bible.
In Varamin, the sentences of five Christians who were arrested in 2024 were confirmed and declared final by the Court of Appeal.
Several other citizens are also still being held in temporary detention in Evin and Qarchak prisons, without any trial having been held for them yet.
International organizations defending religious freedom, including Open Doors and Christian Solidarity Worldwide, stated in joint statements: "The persecution of Christians in Iran is not based on crime, but solely on their religious beliefs, and violates Iran's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
In July, the UN Human Rights Council, at its meeting in Geneva, also expressed concern about increasing pressure on Iran's religious minorities, including Christians, Baha'is, and Yarsanis, and called on the Iranian government to end detentions for religious reasons.
Christian citizens in Iran who convert from Islam to Christianity are usually not included in the official list of recognized religious minorities. Many of them are denied employment, education, or access to social services after converting to Christianity.
Reports from Iran indicate that house churches remain the main form of worship among the community, but their activity carries the risk of arrest and prison sentences. “Our faith continues in secret,” said a source inside the country. “Every gathering could be our last.”
Christian activists have called on global networks to put the issue of religious freedom in Iran on the agenda of the media and governments. Leaders of several global churches also announced in a joint statement: “Faith has become a crime in Iran. Now is the time to pray and take action for our brothers and sisters who are imprisoned for the gospel.”
Experts say the coincidence of these crackdowns with domestic political and economic crises indicates the use of the judicial system as a tool for social control. According to observers, Iran recorded one of the highest rates of religious convictions in the region in 2025.
