Iranian security forces killed 19 Christians during nationwide protests: report

Atrocities committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against anti-regime protesters reportedly led to the killing of at least 19 people by security forces Iranian ChristiansAccording to Article 18, an organization that works to promote religious freedom in Iran.

Article 18 reported on February 9 that “the total number of Christians confirmed killed during the protests is at least 19 people, including members of Iran’s two recognized communities (Armenians and Assyrians) and unrecognized (convert) communities.”

According to the Article 18 statement, “the brutal response of the Islamic Republic to what happened last month Mass demonstrations“This led security forces to kill Iranian Christians Nader Mohammadi, 35, and Zahra Arjomandi, 51, who were shot dead on January 8 in separate protests 1,000 miles away.”

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Iranians gather as a street is blocked during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. (Mahsa/Middle East Pictures/AFP via Getty Images)

Mohammadi was the father of three young children, and was killed in Babylon, northern Iran. Arjomandi, a mother of two children, died in her son’s arms on Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, southern Iran, Article 18 noted.

The Iranian Christian website Mohabbat News reported that the regime’s security forces refused to release Arjomandi’s body for six days. Mohabbat stated that her body was not released for burial except under “tight security measures,” which included a media blackout and a ban on holding a memorial ceremony.

“Today, Christians, like millions of other Iranians, are seeking the freedom and justice they have been denied for nearly five decades, knowing full well that this comes at a price,” Mansour Borchi, Article 18’s executive director, told Fox News Digital. Many Christians “They are arrested and imprisoned in torturous conditions for exercising their right to religious freedom, where an act as simple as praying together in home churches appears to be an act of civil disobedience.”

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NOPO’s armed special police units are on the scene as Iranians take to the streets in Enghelab (Revolution) Square downtown in Tehran, Iran on June 24, 2025. (Nigar Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

He continued: “Our organization considers the Islamic Republic’s massacre of all peaceful demonstrators as a crime against humanity that should not go unpunished. There must be an end to the impunity that has enabled this regime, for too long, to commit crimes both at home and abroad. Labeling peaceful demonstrators as ‘terrorists’, and Christians who are persecuted every year as ‘Zionist mercenaries’, is nothing but scapegoats.”

He warned, “The Islamic Republic regime has, from its inception, displayed all the traits of a totalitarian state. Most Iranians now realize that their basic rights have been taken away from them, including the freedom to choose their religion or belief, political self-determination, and even lifestyle choices. Christians were among the first to experience this, when an Anglican priest-convert to Christianity, the Rev. Aristo Sayah, was murdered in his church office less than 200 hours after the attack.” 1979 Revolution.”

Inclusive 2025 Report entitled“Tip of the Iceberg” on the persecution of Iranian Christians under Article 18 was produced in collaboration with Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Middle East Concern.

An Iranian Christian woman lights a candle at St. Mary’s Chaldean Assyrian Catholic Church, on Christmas Eve, in downtown Tehran, Iran on December 24, 2012. (AP)

According to the “Tip of the Iceberg” report, Mohammad Nasserpour, Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran and Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the 33rd District, mentioned in the indictment he brought against four Iranian Christians in June 2022: “Armenians and Assyrians.” Christians in the Protestant denominationThese groups, with their evangelical nature and mission of Christianizing Iran, are seen as posing a security threat to the Islamic Revolution and aiming to undermine the Islamic foundation of the Islamic Republic. It can be said that the Persian-speaking evangelical movements enjoy the support of evangelical Christians and fundamentalist Zionists.”

According to a February 10 report on the Christianity Today website, Iranian Christians want President Trump To intervene to prevent the Ayatollah’s regime from continuing its massacre of Iranians.

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“This is probably one of the most frustrating aspects of the whole situation right now,” said Shahrokh Afshar, founder of the Fellowship of Iranian Christians. “Everyone was hoping he would do something,” Afshar told the outlet after Iranian authorities killed thousands of protesters in January. According to some estimates.

Cars burn in a street during a protest against the collapse of the currency in Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2026. (Stringer/Wana (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)

Fox News Digital has reported over the decades on the Islamic Republic’s severe persecution of Iranian Christians in the wake of the growing popularity of Christianity in the Muslim-majority country. The Iranian regime targets diverse groups of Christians, including evangelicals and Catholics. In 2017Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has arrested two Christians – a mother and her son – as part of a brutal crackdown on Catholicism in the country’s West Azerbaijan province.

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The family’s Bibles and literature on Christian theology were also seized during the raid.

the US Department of State Iran has been designated as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” because the Islamic regime “has engaged in or tolerated particularly serious violations of religious freedom” in connection with violations of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.

The Iranian regime-controlled Statistical Center claims that there are 117,700 Christians of recognized denominations as of the 2016 census, according to the latest US State Department report About the plight of Iranian Christians.

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However, the State Department noted that “Christian advocacy NGO Article 18 estimates there are between 500,000 and 800,000 Christians in the country, while Christian advocacy NGO Open Doors International puts the number at 1.24 million. Christian NGOs report that many Christians are converts from Islam or other recognized religions.” Iran’s population is about 92 million people.