Two United Nations experts have called on Iran to explain the confiscation of St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in Tehran and the eviction of Christian families from the property.
Reports emerged in July that Iranian authorities had seized the church, described as the country’s oldest Protestant congregation, and removed Christian residents living on the site.
The roughly 10-acre property included homes, two schools and offices used by the Bible Society and the Council of Evangelical Churches of Iran, which owns the land. Around 20 Assyrian and Armenian Christian families were reportedly displaced.
It has since emerged that Mai Sato, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, and Nazila Ghanea, the special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, sent a formal communication to Tehran on July 10. Under U.N. procedures, the letter became public 60 days later.
The experts said they were “concerned that these developments do not appear to constitute an isolated incident, but rather the culmination of a decades-long pattern of measures directed against the Christian community in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in particular against Persian-speaking Christian worship.”
They also pointed to other church properties that have been confiscated, closed, demolished or repurposed, saying Iran had not clarified whether affected Christian communities received any remedy.
“There were once around 50 Protestant churches offering services in Persian in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today there are effectively none because the three Anglican churches that were permitted to preach in Persian in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz have not been allowed to reopen since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The rapporteurs said Iran had not responded to their questions since the communication was issued and that regime forces were now guarding St. Peter’s.
