Authorities in Iran arrested 254 Christians on charges related to their faith or religious activities in 2025, nearly twice as many as the figure of 139 detained the previous year, a new report shows.
In nearly 90 percent of the cases, authorities leveled charges under the amended Article 500 of the penal code, which criminalizes “propaganda contrary to the holy religion of Islam,” according to the report released today (Feb. 19) by Article18, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Middle East Concern.
More than twice the number of Christians served sentences of imprisonment, exile or forced labor last year, 57, than the previous year’s figure of 25, the report states.
“Forty-three Christians were still serving sentences at the end of 2025, while a further at least 16 others remained in pre-trial detention,” it states. “And although fewer Christians were sentenced in 2025 than the previous year – 96 compared to 73 – the combined total of their sentences (280 years) was higher than in 2024 (263 years), conveying a trend towards harsher sentences.”
At least 11 Christians received sentences of 10 years or more in 2025, while authorities handed down a total of nine years in exile and 249 years of deprivation of such items health, employment or education, the report notes.
Following Iran’s “12-day war” with Israel on June 13-25, five Christians faced charges under a new espionage law introduced after the military action, resulting in combined sentences of over 40 years in prison, the report states.
The report notes a “sharp increase” in arrests of Christians following the 12-day war, as confirmed in a statement by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence that referred to 53 “trained elements” – referring to evangelical Christians – who had been “neutralized.”
“Christians’ personal property, including Bibles and other Christian literature, was ordered to be confiscated by the state in at least two cases, for the ‘research’ purposes of the MOIS [Ministry of Intelligence and Security],” the report notes. “In an unpublicized case, an army officer’s employment was terminated after 23 years of service because of his conversion to Christianity, while five Christian converts were referred by court order to ‘cult treatment clinics,’ with the stated aim of ‘returning them to the holy religion of Islam.’”
Severe mistreatment of Christian prisoners continued in 2025, including denial of healthcare, psychological torture and a reported beating.
“Another shocking moment was the sentencing of a pregnant Christian convert to 16 years in prison, on International Women’s Day,” the report states. “Meanwhile, an Iranian-Armenian Christian who received his second 10-year prison sentence in 2025 was prevented from attending his mother’s funeral when she died two months after his re-arrest; one of the Christian converts sentenced alongside him suffered a stroke while being held in solitary confinement; and another fractured her spine after falling out of her prison bunk bed, then developed an infection after being returned to prison too soon.”
Authorities continued targeting Christians involved in Bible distribution in 2025, with at least 21 Christians receiving custodial sentences related to their alleged involvement in the activity, in addition to punishments such as fines, exile and social deprivation, it states.
“One of our key recommendations is for Iran to reopen the Bible Society, whose ‘temporary closure’ in 1990 remains in force more than 35 years later, and whose reopening would make it unnecessary for Christians to bring Bibles into Iran from abroad,” the report notes. “We call on the international community to hold Iran accountable for its failures to uphold its obligations under Article 18 of the ICCPR, whose definition of religious freedom includes freedom to adopt a faith of one’s choosing and to practice it in public or private.”
Hate speech against Christians and other religious minorities also continued, with the report noting that in August, state media “released a video report showing footage of some of the arrested Christians attending a gathering in Türkiye; screenshots of some of their confiscated items, including New Testaments and other Christian literature; and alleged surveillance recordings of Bibles being “smuggled” into the country.
Other notable trends included the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ increasing involvement in arrests of Christians and monitoring of Christians’ overseas activities, such as attending theological seminars in Turkey.
The report also calls for the “unconditional release of Christians and other religious or belief minorities detained on charges related to their beliefs or religious activities”; the “reopening of forcibly closed churches”; and “clarity on where Persian-speaking Christians may worship freely in their mother tongue, free from fear of arrest and prosecution.”
The report, entitled, “Scapegoats: Rights Violations Against Christians in Iran,” begins by referring to the protests that erupted at the end of 2025 calling for an end to the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
“The response to those protests has been horrifying,” it states, “with reports of many thousands killed, including several Christians, and every Iranian – regardless of their religious background – affected. The road ahead for Iran appears far from clear, but as we release this latest annual report of rights violations committed against Christians in 2025, we stand with the people of Iran in their call for leaders who will act on their behalf, rather than repress them.”
Iran ranked No. 10 on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
