The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has included Tehran’s Evin Prison among five featured detention centres in a new factsheet about the mistreatment of religious prisoners of conscience.

The factsheet, published on 4 December, notes that the majority of Christians imprisoned in Iran today are held in the notorious facility.

“Former Christian prisoners [of Evin] report prison guards making harassing comments about their religion during interrogations,” it states. “Others have been pressured to ‘confess’ to participation in religious activities.”

It cites the example of a former prisoner of conscience who testified earlier this year that an Evin interrogator had “tried to pressure him to sign a legal commitment to cease his religious activities”.

The factsheet also notes that an Armenian Christian woman reported in 2022 that an interrogator at Evin had “sexually assaulted and disparaged her for not wearing hijab on account of her non-Muslim religious identity”.

As well as housing “political dissidents, including religious minorities imprisoned on the basis of their faith”, Evin has also held “lawyers and activists who have advocated peacefully for FoRB [freedom of religion or belief]”, the factsheet adds. 

Severe mistreatment of Christian prisoners has been a notable characteristic of 2025 – especially in Evin Prison – including denial of healthcare, psychological torture, and even physical abuse. 

One Christian convert, Amir-Ali Minaei, was assaulted by a prison officer in March after requesting specialised medical care for a heart condition and later went on hunger strike after being refused access to a telephone.

Iranian-Armenian pastor Joseph Shahbazian, meanwhile, was prevented from attending his mother’s funeral when she died in April, two months after his re-arrest, while one of the Christian converts arrested alongside him, Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, suffered a stroke while being held in solitary confinement and was returned to his cell after just two days of treatment in hospital, still complaining of lack of movement in his left-side. 

Another Christian convert, Aida Najaflou, fractured her spine in October after falling from her prison bunk bed and only received necessary surgery after fellow prisoners protested on her behalf. She later developed an infection after being returned from hospital too soon and yesterday her lawyer warned that if not cared for correctly she may suffer irreparable damage.

Meanwhile, another Christian former prisoner of conscience, Laleh Saati, was denied access to medical care following a fall in which she broke two fingers, and on her release in May, after over 15 months in Evin Prison, was reported to be in a “psychologically unstable state” after being forced to spend the final weeks of her detention in the notorious Ward 209, which is controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence.

USCIRF’s full factsheet, which also features prisons in Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and Eritrea, can be read here.