Freedom of religion or belief

Freedom of religion or belief is systematically violated. This includes arbitrary arrests, lengthy imprisonment, torture and other ill-treatment, forcible closure of businesses owned by members of religious minorities, confiscation of properties, bans on employment in the public sector and denial of access to universities. 

Officially recognised churches have been subjected to increasingly restrictive controls since 2009. Churches are effectively banned from using the Persian language in their activities, a restriction enforced through various means. Intelligence forces have asked leaders of these churches to hand over details of their members. Churches have also been asked to end their Friday Persian-speaking services in a clear attempt to reduce attendance since Friday is a weekend day and Sunday is a working day. The largest Persian-speaking church in Tehran was forced to cease its Sunday services in Persian in 2013.

Iranian Christians continue to face arbitrary arrest and detention, grossly unfair trials and lengthy imprisonment. The authorities in most cases charge them with spurious national security offences in connection with the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of religion or belief. Lack of due process, unfair trials, widespread torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners has been widely reported.

The authorities continue to crack down heavily on activists in the "house church" movement. Every year many Christians are summoned for interrogation, detained and prosecuted for participating in house-church activities. 

The authorities regularly incite hatred and violence, vilifying evangelical Christians as “heretical”, “deviant”, and “parasites”. They have endorsed pervasive discrimination and violence based on religious belief.

The right to change or renounce religious beliefs continues to be violated. Christian converts have received lengthy prison sentences, ranging from 10 to 15 years in several cases.

Christians arrested for their "house church" activities have been arbitrarily dismissed from employment or denied enrolment in universities. 

Non-Shi’a Muslims are not allowed to stand as presidential candidates or hold key political offices.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Torture and other ill-treatment remains common, especially during interrogations. Detainees held by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards are routinely subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, amounting to torture.

The authorities continue to deprive prisoners detained for religious reasons of adequate medical care. In many cases, this has been done as a deliberate punishment to force them to recant their faith and amounts to torture.

Prisoners endure cruel and inhumane conditions in detention, including overcrowding, limited hot water, inadequate food, insufficient beds, poor ventilation and insect infestations.

Unfair trials

Trials of Christians are systematically unfair. There are no independent mechanisms for ensuring accountability within the judiciary. Serious concerns remain that judges, particularly those presiding over Revolutionary Courts, are appointed on the basis of their political opinions and affiliation with intelligence bodies.

Fair trial provisions of the 2015 Code of Criminal Procedure, including those guaranteeing access to a lawyer from the time of arrest and during investigations, are routinely flouted. The authorities continue to invoke Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to prevent those detained for political reasons from accessing lawyers of their own choosing. Lawyers have been told they were not on the list approved by the Head of the Judiciary, even though no official list has been made public.

Trials, particularly those before Revolutionary Courts, remain closed and extremely brief, sometimes lasting just a few minutes.