Christians have been among the more than 6,000 Iranians arbitrarily arrested and in some cases subjected to enforced disappearances since the start of the war, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

“Authorities have arbitrarily arrested, threatened and/or summoned hundreds of protesters; human rights defenders; lawyers; journalists and other media workers; civil society activists; labour rights’ activists; students; teachers; justice-seeking families of protesters and bystanders unlawfully killed or arbitrarily executed; ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds; and religious minorities, including Baha’is and Christians,” the report states.

It cites the example of Christian convert Mary Mohammadi, a former prisoner of conscience, who according to Amnesty “has been subjected to enforced disappearance since late February 2026”. 

“According to an informed source, she had travelled from Tehran to Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, and was in contact with her family until around 26 February 2026 before communication ceased,” the report states. “The authorities have refused to disclose her fate or whereabouts to her family but, according to information gathered by Amnesty International, she was initially held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Ahvaz before being transferred to an undisclosed location on 2 April 2026.”

Amnesty warns that Mary and the other detainees are “at grave risk, particularly amid reports of torture and other ill-treatment in detention and deaths in custody in suspicious circumstances”.

“Amnesty International has documented torture and other ill-treatment against detainees since 28 February 2026, including mock executions through simulated hangings and putting a gun in the mouth, beatings, suspension from hands and feet, prolonged solitary confinement, and denial of food and medical care,” the report states. “Authorities have also used forced ‘confessions’ as a propaganda tool, broadcasting videos on state media prior to judicial proceedings.”

The report cites mass arrests in at least 20 provinces across the country, including in Yazd, where in May a prosecutor claimed to have arrested three leaders of “a Christian evangelistic network”. 

It also notes the targeting of human rights defenders, such as Bahar Sahraian, a lawyer who has defended political prisoners including Christians and who was arrested in May while following up on her cases at a Revolutionary Court.

“The international community must not allow the Iranian authorities to use the conflict as a smokescreen to deepen their machinery of repression and carry out crimes under international law with impunity,” concludes Amnesty’s Erika Guevara Rosas. “Iran’s human rights and impunity crisis requires urgent and sustained diplomatic international action to prevent further atrocity crimes by the authorities, as well as establishing pathways for international justice including through the UN Security Council’s referral of Iran’s situation to the International Criminal Court.”