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The State Department condemned Iran’s intensified repression of Christians, including a Catholic woman on hunger strike in a prison known as one of the most brutal in the religious state.
The Trump administration’s statement on widespread human rights violations committed by the Iranian regime coincides with new military strikes against it in response to Tehran’s attacks on commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), the Christian woman on hunger strike is 42-year-old Ghazal Marzban, who is being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Iran sentenced a Catholic Marzban to nearly 10 years in prison for practicing his Christian faith, Iranian experts tell Fox News Digital. By the end of May Marzban’s physical health had deteriorated. His current status is not known.
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According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), Ghazal Marzban is being held in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. Iran sentenced a Catholic Marzban to nearly 10 years in prison for practicing his Christian faith, according to Iranian experts. (Article 18)
It is unclear whether the administration plans to increase pressure on Iran’s leaders over widespread persecution of religious minorities and regime opponents.
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We are aware of these reports. It is reprehensible that the Iranian regime continues to persecute religious minorities, including Iranian Christians.”
Article 18, an organization that promotes religious freedom in Iran, said that after Marzban’s conversion, Islamic law graduates were banned from taking the bar entrance exam. Her husband, who had also converted to Christianity, has been refused medication for Parkinson’s disease in accordance with Article 18.
Fox News Digital sent a press query to Iran’s United Nations Mission about Marzban and the plight of Christians in Iran.
Iranians gather blocking a road during a protest in Tehran on January 9, 2026. (MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
A State Department spokesperson said, “In Iran, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion or belief, are blatantly disregarded. The regime targets members of religious and ethnic minority groups and uses tactics such as arbitrary arrest and torture to intimidate opponents and silence dissent.”
In January the regime reportedly killed 45,000 Iranian protesters within a 48-hour period, including 22 Iranian Christians, with regime security forces arresting large numbers of protesters.
Reports say the Iranian regime is seeking to evict families from the St. Peter’s Church complex. Critics say it sends a clear message of intimidation to the broader Christian community. (Article 18)
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President Donald Trump has cited the number of 45,000 Iranians killed by the regime. The State Department told Fox News Digital that Iran’s leaders should release protesters who are still in custody.
A State Department spokesperson said, “We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the people of Iran and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political and wrongfully detained prisoners, including those facing persecution for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms.”
Lisa Daftari, an Iran expert and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital that the joint US-Israeli ouster of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in February “has not reduced the pressure. On the contrary, we are seeing further escalation and the implementation of even more radical effects.”
“Arrests of Christians increased from 139 in 2024 to 254 in 2025, as well as longer and more frequent sentences,” Daftari said. At least 11 people were arrested over the decade. After the recent war, authorities claimed to have ‘neutralized’ 53 elements, which they refer to as evangelical Christians. This is because the Islamic Republic considers conversion a Sees it as a security threat.”
Hengo, an organization that monitors human rights violations in Iran, reported on its website on July 3 that the regime was planning to seize St. Peter’s Church in Tehran. “It is a large Christian complex with schools and family homes, and about 20 Armenian and Assyrian families are being expelled under a Revolutionary Court order that has lain unused since 1998,” Daftari said.
Iranian authorities are reportedly evacuating everyone living in the church compound. (Article 18)
Asked about a policy response from the US, Daftari said, “If there is to be a response, it should be targeted. That means sanctions on specific judges, intelligence officials and the IRGC.” [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Actors involved in cases such as St. Peter’s Church and Marzban. and the transfer of church assets to entities such as EIKO. [a business empire controlled by the late Khamenei] This should be treated as state capture, not an internal legal matter, and raised accordingly in international forums.”
Ramin, whose real name cannot be disclosed due to “security reasons,” an expert at Open Doors, a global Christian organization that assists persecuted Christians, told Fox News Digital, “The threatened seizure of St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in Tehran is extremely worrying and should not be viewed simply as a property dispute. It reflects a broader and long-standing pattern of pressure on Iran’s Christian communities, including recognized historic churches, “Including matters relating to the Protestant community, converts and Catholic converts.”
Ramin said, “St. Peter’s is one of Iran’s historic Protestant churches, and the alleged expulsion of families from the complex has sent a clear message of intimidation to the broader Christian community. This, coupled with the arrest, detention and punishment of Christian converts, including those from Catholic backgrounds, shows that Iranian authorities treat peaceful Christian faith as a security concern rather than a basic right to freedom of religion or belief.”
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Mansour Borji, executive director of Article 18, told Fox News Digital that “The targeting of Christians, whom the founders of the Islamic Republic viewed as an ideological threat, began from the very early days of the revolution. This included both Catholic and Protestant communities. Within days of the 1979 revolution, the Rev. Aristotle Sayyah, an Anglican priest, was murdered in his office. Foreign missionaries were killed within the first year. were expelled and Christian schools, hospitals and churches soon came under increasing pressure.”
He further stated that, “Since 2008, Article18 has documented numerous confidential cases, including arbitrary arrests of Catholic converts, harassment of Church leaders, denial of visas for clergy, revoking of citizenship from long-serving bishops, and confiscation and demolition of Church property.”
A billboard depicting Iran’s supreme leaders since 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (until 1989), Ali Khamenei (until 2026) and Mojtaba Khamenei (present) is displayed above a highway in Tehran on March 10, 2026. (Via AFP/Getty Images)
Borji added, “The recent move against St. Peter’s Church is not an isolated incident or a new development. It is part of a long-standing pattern of systematic pressure on independent Christian communities. The Islamic Republic is an authoritarian regime that has consistently sought to suppress any institution or community that acts outside its ideological control.”
In view of the intensified persecution of Iranian Christians, he warned that “if the Islamic Republic regains the ability to present its ideology with new confidence, the consequences are likely to spread throughout the region and beyond.”
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He urged that perpetrators “should face targeted sanctions, visa restrictions and asset freezes under existing human rights mechanisms.”
Borji said, “Governments, particularly the EU, Britain and other trading partners, must also make religious freedom an ongoing part of their engagement with Iran, rather than treating it as a secondary issue. Appeasing a regime that oppresses its own people rarely breeds restraint.”
