ICC Note: Despite being elected under promises of reform, the situation for Christians under President Hassan Rouhani has not improved. Christians are still regularly arrested and imprisoned for nothing more than meeting with others who share their faith. The Iranian regime continues its campaign to stamp out Christianity among all Persian people and persecute those who leave Islam to follow Christianity.
01/04/2015 Iran (ICHR) Despite President Hassan Rouhani’s pledges during his election campaign in 2013 that “All ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, must feel justice,” the targeting of Christian converts for state persecution and prosecution has continued unabated under his administration.
Most recently, two days before Christmas, officials from the Administration’s Intelligence Ministry arrested a Christian convert in Isfahan, according to the Alliance of Iranian Churches known as Hamgam, carting him and an assortment of his personal belongings off to an undisclosed location.
The arrest of leaders of minority faiths in Iran, especially those that engage in proselytizing, and the systematic discrimination of members of such faith in all walks of life, have led the UN Secretary-General and the UN Special Rapporteur for Iran to consistently cite the denial of freedom of religion as a major human rights violation in Iran.
“Agents of the Intelligence Ministry in Isfahan entered the home of Meysam Hojati on December 23, 2015, scolded him in front of his parents, slapped him on the face, searched his home and took personal belongings including his computer, phone, Holy Book and Christian pamphlets,” Mansour Borji, a spokesperson for the Alliance told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
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