IRAN AFFAIRS: A new report by NUFDI titled “Faith Under Siege” has documented the religious oppression, providing many examples of the individuals who have been arrested.
As over two billion Christians around the world gather to celebrate Christmas during the next two weeks, one country in particular has increased its oppression of Christians and other religious minorities – Iran.
When Iran’s 12-day war with Israel ended in June, the regime in Tehran moved quickly to declare victory and national unity. However, behind the slogans and state television broadcasts, the Islamic Republic redirected its security apparatus inward at its own people, launching one of the most sweeping domestic crackdowns in recent years. The authorities boasted of arresting at least 21,000 “traitors” in the months following the war.
At the center of that campaign were Iran’s religious minorities – Christians, Jews, and Baha’is. These are communities long accustomed to discrimination since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, but they are now confronted with a level of repression that fused faith itself with allegations of treason.
A new report by the National Union for Democracy in Iran, titled “Faith Under Siege,” has documented the religious oppression, providing many examples of the individuals who have been arrested, often without the realistic chance of release and, more often than not, with the threat of torture hanging over them.
Many of the arrests were justified under an expansive set of charges, including espionage, collaboration with Israel (Iran has executed scores of people since the war under claims of spying for Israel), and “undermining national morale.” While journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens were swept up in large numbers, religious minorities were disproportionately targeted, often on the basis of belief alone, the report documents.
