Two side events the day before Iran’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations in Geneva last week highlighted once again the chasm between what the Islamic Republic says about its treatment of religious minorities and the reality of their lived experience.

The first event on 23 January, co-hosted by Article18, included representatives of both the recognised (Iranian-Assyrian) and unrecognised (Christian convert) Christian communities, both of which have experienced multiple violations of their rights to religious freedom as defined by Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Iran has ratified and is therefore obliged to uphold.

The second event, held in the very same room just one hour later, was hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran and included a statement from another Iranian-Assyrian, MP Sharli Envieh, who presented an entirely different version of reality, speaking of an Iran in which everyone, “regardless of their beliefs and convictions, has a place and is respected”.

Ten notable contrasts between the two events are highlighted below, while you can read more about our side event here.

1. ‘Iran has always welcomed people with different beliefs’

Iran has “always been welcoming to people with different beliefs and convictions”, said the Assyrian MP in his address.

Iran’s “religious and cultural diversity is one of the outstanding features of Iranian society”, he added, and “the richness and greatness” of Iran’s culture is “derived from its mosaic of colours” and the “settlement of different ethnic groups over thousands of years”, including “the community of religious minorities in Iran”.

In contrast, Article18’s event, which was co-sponsored by partner organisations CSW, Middle East Concern and Open Doors, included the testimony of Christian convert Amin Afshar-Naderi, who spoke of twice being arrested by security agencies “due to my Christian faith and activities”.

At the conclusion of the Islamic Republic’s side event, Mr Afshar-Naderi commented that the Iran Mr Envieh had spoken of was “apparently a paradise for religious minorities”, before asking:

“Is it possible for you to talk about the government’s behaviour and approach towards other religious minorities, such as Christian converts or Baha’is, or their places of worship and gathering? Is it possible for you to name a few churches where Persian-speakers who have become Christians are present for worship?”

No response was given.

2. ‘Equal rights’

“In Iran, everyone enjoys equal rights,” said Mr Envieh at Iran’s UPR the next day.

At the end of the Islamic Republic’s side event, an Article18 spokesperson had asked Mr Envieh to clarify whether the “equal rights” spoken of by the Islamic Republic delegation also “extend to Christian converts and members of recognised religious minorities who seek to share their faith with others”, such as another Iranian-Assyrian, Victor Bet-Tamraz, who was arrested alongside Mr Afshar-Naderi and later sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Mr Envieh responded: “This person you mentioned is one of the supporters of evangelical Christians who we know as ‘Zionist Christians’.

“We, the true Christians of Iran, who have been in Iran for 2,000 years, maybe more – even the Assyrian Christians were Zoroastrians before they became Christians. The Assyrians date back 3,800 years in Iran. 

“We, the true Christians who believed in Christianity in the first decade, had no problems in Iran. These were a series of programmes from the Zionist regime that wanted to distort the true face of Iran by cultivating such people who have no Christian nature or truth.”

This is not the first time that Mr Envieh has spoken out against Christian converts and evangelicals. In 2021, during a video interview, he labelled evangelical churches “repugnant to us”, before championing the “self-sufficiency”, “justice” and “human dignity” of the Islamic Republic.

A year later, during the Women, Life, Freedom protests that swept Iran, Mr Envieh clashed with another Christian former prisoner of conscience, Farshid Fathi, on Instagram, calling him “a Muslim who only pretended to be a Christian”, before admitting to having warned 40-50 Assyrian youths who had either participated in or announced support online for the protests.

3. ‘Equal opportunities’ 

“It cannot be denied that in Iranian society, there are opportunities for all groups, and the benefit of these opportunities is equal for everyone,” said Mr Envieh at the second side event. 

Meanwhile, in his address to the UPR, he outlined the opportunities afforded to minorities in the areas of work, education, associations, media, publishing and funding by the State.

Work vs. deprivation of employment

Mr Envieh said Christian entrepreneurs had “contributed to job creation and technological development by establishing companies and startups”, and religious minorities had “contributed to the development of the country” through their work in hospitals, as engineers, or in construction.

He added that “even followers of some religious sects [he did not say which]” – whose activities he said are “negatively promoted within Iran” – have a “very significant and active presence in various sectors of the Iranian economy, and have access to many of Iran’s capital and service sectors, and a very significant portion of them live in Iran without any restrictions, prohibitions, or limitations”.

Meanwhile, many Christians have testified to being denied work and education opportunities after arrest, such as Peyman Kiani, and Parsa Mostafaei, who was arrested while finalising plans for his own new business venture.

Funding vs. fines

Mr Envieh said the “allocation of special budgets, such as funds provided by the Minister of Interior to religious-minority associations as positive discrimination, have annually increased by 100%, amounting to a total of $2.5 million between 2020 and 2024”.

Meanwhile, last year alone, the at least 96 Christian convicted as a result of their religious faith or activities were fined a total of nearly $800,000.

Media freedom vs. Bibles as contraband

Mr Envieh said “religious minorities use dedicated publications to raise awareness within their communities”, referencing the “publication of 157 book titles by publishers belonging to religious minorities” within Iran’s last UPR cycle.

Meanwhile, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Nazila Ghanea, noted in the first event the “alarming revelation” from the leaked Tehran judiciary files of the “treatment of Bibles and Christian literature as contraband and evidence of a ‘crime’”.

“In 2023, over one-third of Christian arrests involved charges related to distributing Bibles or evangelical materials,” she noted.

Mr Afshar-Naderi also testified that during his arrest the agents “found a Bible that I had bought from Turkey for my personal study”, which “was seized as evidence of a crime”. 

“Later, while in prison, I requested a Bible, explaining that I am a Christian and I had the right to access it. While the Quran was readily available to all prisoners, my repeated request for a Bible was denied for a long time, until eventually an intelligence officer mockingly told me: ‘You’re foolish to make such a demand! We brought you here because of the Bible, and now you want us to give you one?’”

Article18’s Mansour Borji added that “possession, sale or distribution of the Bible has been unofficially criminalised … since the dissolution of the Iranian Bible Society in 1990”. 

Permits vs. closed doors

Mr Envieh also highlighted the “issuance of 69 activity permits and working permits for foreign religious representatives, including cardinals, bishops and priests in Iran”.

One of the permits was given to Pope Francis’ new cardinal, Dominique Mathieu, who admitted last year that the doors to the Roman Catholic churches he oversees are “closed to almost everyone”.

“We … keep the doors open to our Assyrian or Armenian Church brothers and sisters — they can come, it’s not a problem, because we are not an ethnic Church,” he said. “We maintain a door, praying from within, hoping that one day perhaps the door can open to others.”

Meanwhile, church leaders who minister to converts, such as Victor Bet-Tamraz or Iranian-Armenian Anooshavan Avedian, are routinely sentenced to imprisonment for welcoming converts.

Operation of associations vs. ban on membership

Mr Envieh spoke of the “operation of 56 associations – 28 for Zoroastrians, 15 for Armenians, 10 for Assyrians and three for Jews, addressing religious, cultural, social and welfare issues specific to religious minorities”.

Meanwhile, many Christians, such as Anooshavan Avedian, have been banned from membership of any association as part of the supplementary punishments increasingly given by Revolutionary Court judges on top of prison sentences. 

Music festivals vs. music as ‘a tool for misleading others’

Mr Envieh also spoke of the “cultural and artistic cooperation between minorities and the majority, such as art exhibitions and music festivals” which he said “also help to strengthen cultural interactions”.

In contrast, Amin Afshar-Naderi testified that “a songbook I used for leading worship was cited in my court verdict as evidence of illegal Christian activities” and “even used as a justification for accusation of my leadership role in a house-church”.

“In reports about me, even playing music was described as a tool for misleading others, despite the fact that music is universally recognised in Christian worship as a means of glorifying God.”

4. ‘The right to freely hold their religious ceremonies’

Mr Envieh claimed in the side event that members of Iran’s three recognised religious minorities – Christians (Assyrians and Armenians), Jews and Zoroastrians – “have the right to hold their religious ceremonies”, while in his UPR address he spoke of the “free operation” of “approximately 300 churches”.

And yet, Middle East Concern’s Patrick Conway noted how several churches have been “forcibly closed in connection with the attendance of Christian converts and holding services in the Persian language – for instance, the Assemblies of God Central Church in Tehran was forced to close in 2013 and remains closed and inaccessible”.

Meanwhile, Victor Bet-Tamraz’s daughter, Dabrina, noted how “at least 10 Protestant Assyrian [or] Armenian churches have been shut down since 2011”. 

“Most of the 300-odd churches [in Iran] predate the 1979 Revolution,” added CSW’s Khataza Gondwe. “It would have been more accurate if the Iranian authorities had also divulged how many of the churches are still able to function as worship centres. 

“In addition, knowing how many of these churches were constructed after the Islamic Republic was established would serve as an important indicator of the situation of freedom of religion or belief in the country.”

Mr Afshar-Naderi said he often wonders whether, “if the doors of our church in Tehran’s Shahrara neighbourhood had not been closed [to converts], we would not have had to gather in private homes, and perhaps none of these things [his arrest] would have happened”.

“When that church was banned from accepting Persian-speaking Christians, with the cooperation of the Assyrian representative in parliament [Sharli Envieh’s predecessor], the Assyrian pastor of our church [Victor Bet-Tamraz] was dismissed; therefore, we were left without options for communal worship [other than] to gather in our homes.”

Mr Borji said true religious diversity was defined “not in a sense that you would show tourists historical churches and historical buildings that are restricted or closed to most Christians – especially to those who speak the national language of Persian. Not only 300; you could have 1,000 churches, but if they are restricted to be accessed by the Iranians, that is not a sign of religious diversity; they’re just buildings for touristic purposes. 

“But religious diversity [is] where freedom of religion and belief is enjoyed by all citizens, which includes [under Article 18 of the ICCPR] ‘the right to adopt a religion or belief of his choice and freedom, either individually or in community with others in public’ – like in churches – ‘or in private’, like their privacy of their homes, ‘to manifest their religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching, and that no-one shall be subjected to coercion because of their religious or belief of their choice’.”

5. ‘Restoration of 40 churches’

In his UPR address, Mr Envieh boasted of the “restoration of 40 churches” among the achievements of his government over the past four and a half years. 

Meanwhile, over the same time period, the former home of the Anglican bishop of Iran – himself a Christian convert – and the former church of the murdered head of the Assemblies of God denomination were among the buildings repurposed by the state years after their confiscation.

6. ‘Special ceremonies’

Mr Envieh spoke in the side event of how Iran’s religious minorities “hold their own special ceremonies each year, including Christmas and Easter”.

And in his UPR address, he highlighted the attendance of “national officials, such as the Supreme Leader, heads of the three branches of government and other authorities” at such events – to “congratulate religious minorities on the celebrations”.

Mr Afshar-Naderi and Victor Bet-Tamraz, meanwhile, were first arrested while celebrating Christmas together, and a BBC report last year highlighted how Christian converts are also forced to celebrate Easter in secret, for fear of arrest.

“We’ve never been able to celebrate Christmas or Easter on the actual day,” Christian convert “Tina” told the BBC. “We must shift the timing and do it a few weeks later. In a month, or maybe in three weeks, we’ll cook together and have a little play for the children. We won’t deprive ourselves of this celebration, but we have to take precautions because we know the government has plans [to arrest us on] those days as well.”

7. ‘Legal protections’

Mr Envieh said the “legal protections” enjoyed by religious minorities including Christians have “allowed them to continue to have their followers in Iran, hold their ceremonies and rituals and even have their representatives in elected councils in the regions where they are located”.

In his UPR address, he added that two articles had been added to the Islamic Penal Code (IPC) “criminalising violence and hate speech against Iranian ethnicities, divine religions, or Islamic sects”.

This was a clear reference to the much-maligned amendments to Articles 499 and 500 of the IPC, which rather than protecting Christians are regularly used to bring charges against them on charges of “propaganda against the holy religion of Islam”. 

In 2024, for example, over 70% of charges against Christians were filed under the amended Article 500.

Dr Ghanea said “these and other provisions of the Islamic Penal Code effectively serve to criminalise key protections of freedom of religious belief under international human rights law.

“The amended articles 499 and 500 were added to … the Islamic penal code in order to define punishments for ‘perverse sects’,” she explained. “These are sects, groups or societies considered to have ‘deviant educational or propagation activities contradictory or detrimental’ – allegedly – ‘to the holy religion of Islam’.

“Financing or supporting these groups aggravates the crime and increases the punishment, so under 499 bis, the punishment is five years, [but] if there has been receipt of financial or organisational help from outside Iran, this is doubled to 10 years’ imprisonment. And similarly for Article 500 bis. 

“The property of the leaders or financial providers of such groups can and are readily confiscated for the benefit of the Iranian Treasury. And [Article18’s latest annual] report details that in the past year, amended Article 500 was used by judges to issue confiscation orders for Christian properties and vehicles in at least two cases.”

Meanwhile, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Mai Sato, noted in her address to the first event how her predecessors in the role had documented “multiple breaches of Iran’s obligations under the ICCPR concerning the Christian community in Iran” – including to the rights to liberty and security, to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief [FoRB], to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, physical and psychological integrity, privacy, as well as the principle of non-discrimination and the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”

8. ‘Representatives in the parliament’

Mr Envieh highlighted how Iran’s recognised religious minorities have their own representatives in the parliament, such as himself.

And yet Article18’s Mansour Borji noted that Mr Envieh “is on record, both written and also on video, and the printed magazine – which I happen to have a copy of here – the front cover of a magazine printed in Iran that quotes him saying: ‘Evangelical Christianity, or promoting Christianity, is a detestable or hated thing’.”

“We cannot have somebody who considers a majority of the Christian population and a global belief [shared by Christians] ‘hateful’ to speak as a representative for all Christians,” Mr Borji said.

“Evangelical churches are not hateful. They [don’t have] a hidden agenda. They don’t want to undermine the national security. In fact, years have proven that they seek the best of their countries and their nations.”

9. ‘Honouring the martyrs’

In his UPR address, Mr Envieh spoke of the “special efforts made to honour the martyrs of religious minorities”, including a “large-scale funeral ceremony” held for an Iranian-Assyrian “martyr of the Iran-Iraq War”, which had been “attended by high ranking officials and the public”.

Yet in 2024, no such ceremonies were held to commemorate two Christian former prisoners of conscience, Ebrahim Firouzi and Bijan Gholizadeh, who tragically died last year.

In her address, Ms Ghanea had used the example of Mr Firouzi to draw attention to the “human cost” of the violations experienced by Iran’s Christians.

“Let’s just focus on one account, that of Ebrahim Firouzi,” she said, “who tragically died at the age of 37 back in February 2024.

“He had originally been arrested in 2011 when he would have been around 24 years old, for involvement in a house-church, possession of Bibles and ‘promoting Christianity’.

“Having spent six years in prison, he was then exiled for two years, more than 1,000 miles from his home.

“His body was found in his flat by his brother, and let’s just spend one moment to think of the tragic pain of that discovery.

“Heavy bails, heavy sentences, refusal of prison leave, which runs counter even to the Iranian prison law, followed by distant exile on release … are replicated across a number of the cases that [Article18’s annual] report logs.”

“For compelling reasons like this,” the SR said, “my next report will focus on FoRB and the prohibition of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Meanwhile, last year marked 30 years since the murders of three Protestant clergymen that a former UN Special Raporteur said had “shocked the world”. And no State-led ceremonies were organised to mark their passing. Indeed, many believed the State to have been responsible for their deaths.

10. ‘Beloved Iran’

Finally, Mr Envieh spoke at the Islamic Republic’s side event of the Iranian Christian community being a “robust” part of “our beloved Iran’s” history and culture.

“The presence of religious minorities in Iran contributes to greater cultural and social enrichment,” he said.

And yet, in the previous side event, Middle East Concern’s Patrick Conway had noted how: “Iran is unquestionably a country of great beauty, and so rich in history and culture. And common to those who are forced to flee Iran due to State-led rights violations and fear of targeting and prison sentences, is that they love their country and really wish to remain there.”

Article18 has released numerous reports detailing the increasing number of Iranian Christians who have fled the country in recent years, and their continued struggles in countries such as Türkiye, Georgia and Sweden.

You can read more about our side event here.