Iran’s Crackdown on Christians Undermines Trump’s Emphasis on Religious Freedom

When the Tehran regime falters abroad, Iran’s religious minorities pay the price at home.

A recently published report by Christian advocacy groups, including Article 18, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Middle East Concern, documents intensified anti-Christian repression in 2025. The report found that arrests on religion-related charges nearly doubled compared to 2024, while more than twice as many Christians served prison, exile, or forced-labor sentences, as courts imposed harsher penalties overall.

The U.S. Department of State’s International Religious Freedom reports routinely flag Iran’s repression of religious minorities. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2025 report likewise recommended that the State Department uphold Iran’s designation as a Country of Particular Concern.

The Islamic Republic has long targeted religious minorities not only as obstacles to the imposition of Islamic law, but also as convenient scapegoats, portraying them as foreign agents to deflect blame when the regime suffers setbacks against external adversaries.

Surge in Arrests of Iranian Religious Minorities Since June 2025 War

Tehran’s humiliation at the hands of Israel and the United States during the 12-Day War last June led the regime to escalate its suppression of Christian faith. Iran regards Christians as a national security threat — particularly members and supporters of Evangelical Christians who converted from Islam and are often accused of having ties to foreign groups. Many of these individuals have been prosecuted for “oharabeh,” or enmity against God, an offense that carries a potential death sentence. Evangelizing is strictly prohibited, and Muslims who convert can face death under Iran’s apostasy laws.

From the beginning of 2025 to the end of the war in June, Iran arrested 40 Christians on sham charges. But in the following month alone, Iranian authorities arrested at least 53 more. The justification was explicit: Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) claimed it had arrested 53 Evangelicals “trained abroad” for collaborating with the “Zionist regime.”

The renewed wave of crackdowns against religious minorities was not limited to Christians. Members of Iran’s Baha’i faced more than 750 “persecutory acts” between June and November 2025, while dozens of Iranian Jews were also arrested and their community leaders were interrogated.

Iran’s Islamic Penal Code Institutionalizes Christian Persecution

Vague interpretations of the Iranian Penal Code were employed in nearly 90 percent of cases against Christians in 2025. Article 500 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, which forbids worship that “interferes with the sacred law of Islam,” is the primary legal weapon the regime uses to stymie Christian worship. A 2021 amendment to this article broadened “deviant propaganda” provisions and increased the maximum penalty to 10 years imprisonment.

The Islamic Republic recognizes only ethnic Christian communities, such as Armenians and Assyrians, and confines them to holding services in their own languages to prevent outreach beyond those groups.

While imprisonment is a more common punishment than execution for targeted Christians, those convicted face monitoring, harassment, exile, and deprivation of social rights — from employment blacklisting to being forbidden from visiting the graves of deceased family members — once they are released. Despite this pressure, Iran remains home to one of the fastest-growing Christian communities in the world.

Washington Should Sanction Iran’s Religious Persecution Architects

The regime’s repression of religious minorities operates on parallel tracks, with a propaganda apparatus that justifies abuse alongside a judiciary that enforces it.

The Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization (IIDO), operating under the supervision of the Supreme Leader, drives the regime’s theocratic propaganda. The IIDO villainizes religious minorities as “deviationist currents,” and labels “missionary Christianity” as a “Zionist” project.  

On the judicial side, Judge Ashkan Ramesh of the Revolutionary Court of Varamin has become increasingly notorious for issuing heavy sentences against Christians, serving as an enforcement arm of this repression.

The U.S. Treasury should therefore designate the IIDO and Judge Ramesh under existing human rights authorities for their roles in the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on religious minorities.

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. Samuel Ben-Ur is a research analyst at FDD focused on global Christian persecution, For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.