by Steve Dew-Jones | 4 Dec 2024 | News
An Iranian Christian convert detained by agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last month has been released on bail. Javad Amini was arrested on 17 November and released on 27 November, the day after he and 11 other Christians from Nowshahr, north...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 4 Dec 2024 | News
Iran’s Catholic archbishop has admitted that the doors to the churches he oversees are “closed to almost everyone”, and said he prays “one day perhaps the door can open to others”. “Our doors … are open for [Catholics] but are closed to almost everyone else,” Fr...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 2 Dec 2024 | News
The Georgian immigration authorities consistently refuse the asylum claims of Iranian Christians, despite their well-founded fears of persecution should they return home. That is the conclusion of a new joint report by Article18, CSW, Open Doors and Middle East...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 2 Dec 2024 | Reports
The Georgian immigration authorities consistently refuse the asylum claims of Iranian Christians, despite their well-founded fears of persecution should they return home. That is the conclusion of a new joint report by Article18, CSW, Open Doors and Middle East...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 27 Nov 2024 | News
Pope Francis has said it is “a lie” to say the Catholic Church is opposed to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but that religious freedom is the “cornerstone” of human rights. The pope, speaking in Rome last Wednesday as the Vatican hosted a delegation...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 26 Nov 2024 | News
Twelve Christian converts, including one currently detained by agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), were due to appear in court today in the northern city of Nowshahr after the prosecutor noted in his indictment that they had “identified themselves...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 21 Nov 2024 | News
The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee adopted a resolution yesterday expressing “serious concern” at “ongoing severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief” in Iran. The resolution, which...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 20 Nov 2024 | News
The exiled son of the former Shah of Iran has highlighted the “widespread and rampant persecution” of Christians and other religious minorities in the Islamic Republic. In a post on X yesterday, Reza Pahlavi said his country was “once a bastion of religious liberty....
by Steve Dew-Jones | 18 Nov 2024 | News
A Christian convert has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges including engaging in “propaganda” by “propagating Christianity”, an Iranian Christian news site has reported. The convert, Toomaj Aryan-Kia, was also convicted of “collaborating” with the...
by Steve Dew-Jones | 8 Nov 2024 | News
The new UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has pledged to “examine” the impact of Iran’s restrictions on religious freedom as part of an “intersectional” approach to rights violations. In her first address to the UN...
