SouthernWorldwide.com – The U.S. State Department has strongly condemned the escalating persecution of Christians in Iran, particularly highlighting the case of a Catholic woman currently on a hunger strike in a notoriously brutal prison. This condemnation comes at a time of heightened tensions, with new military actions being taken against Iran following its attacks on commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration’s statement addresses the widespread human rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime. It remains unclear whether the administration intends to intensify pressure on Iranian leadership regarding their systematic oppression of religious minorities and political opponents.
An organization dedicated to religious freedom in Iran, Article 18, reported that following her conversion, the woman, a law graduate, was barred from taking her bar examination. Furthermore, her husband, who also converted to Christianity, has been denied medication for his Parkinson’s disease.
A spokesperson for the State Department stated, “In Iran, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion or belief, are completely ignored. The regime targets members of religious and ethnic minority groups and uses tactics like arbitrary arrest and torture to intimidate opponents and silence dissent.”
This situation follows reports of the regime allegedly killing as many as 45,000 Iranian demonstrators in January, with up to 22 of them being Iranian Christians. In the aftermath of these protests, the regime’s security forces arrested a significant number of demonstrators.
The State Department spokesperson further declared, “We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the people of Iran and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political and wrongfully detained prisoners, including those facing persecution for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms.”
According to Daftari, an expert on the matter, “Arrests of Christians jumped from 139 in 2024 to 254 in 2025, alongside longer and more frequent sentences. At least 11 people received over a decade. After the recent war, authorities claimed they had ‘neutralized’ 53 elements, which is how they refer to evangelical Christians. That is because the Islamic Republic views conversion as a security threat.”
Hengaw, an organization monitoring human rights in Iran, reported on July 3 that the Iranian regime intends to seize St. Peter Church in Tehran. Daftari explained, “This is a large Christian compound with schools and family homes, and roughly 20 Armenian and Assyrian families are being expelled under a Revolutionary Court order that’s been sitting unused since 1998.”
When questioned about potential U.S. policy responses, Daftari suggested, “If there’s going to be a response, it has to be targeted. That means sanctions on the specific judges, intelligence officials and IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] actors involved in cases like St. Peter Church and Marzban. And the transfer of church property to entities like EIKO [a business empire controlled by the late Khamenei] should be treated as state seizure, not an internal legal matter, and raised accordingly in international forums.”
Ramin added, “St Peter’s is one of Iran’s historic Protestant churches, and the reported eviction of families from the compound sends a clear message of intimidation to the wider Christian community. Together with the arrest, detention and sentencing of Christian converts, including those from Catholic backgrounds, this shows that the Iranian authorities continue to treat the peaceful Christian faith as a security concern rather than as a basic right to freedom of religion or belief.”
He further noted that, “Since 2008, Article18 has documented numerous confidential cases involving the arbitrary arrest of Catholic converts, harassment of church leaders, visa denials for clergy, the revocation of citizenship from a long-serving bishop and the confiscation and demolition of church property.”
Borji continued, “The recent move against St. Peter’s Church is therefore not an isolated incident or a new development. It is part of a long-standing pattern of systematic pressure on independent Christian communities. The Islamic Republic is a totalitarian regime that has consistently sought to suppress any institution or community that operates outside its ideological control.”
In light of the intensified persecution of Iranian Christians, he warned that “If the Islamic Republic regains the capacity to project its ideology with renewed confidence, the consequences are likely to extend across the region and beyond.”
He urged that perpetrators “face targeted sanctions, visa restrictions and asset freezes under existing human rights mechanisms.”
Borji concluded, “Governments, especially in the EU, U.K. and other trade partners, should also make religious freedom a consistent part of their engagement with Iran, rather than treating it as a secondary issue. Appeasing a regime that persecutes its own people has rarely produced moderation.”
