Tamar Stein September 14, 2026

Iran has spent the past year fighting a war with Israel and the United States, absorbing sweeping new sanctions, and putting down a civilian uprising that left tens of thousands dead. In the middle of that upheaval, the Islamic Republic has also escalated a campaign against a population that poses it no military threat at all: its own Christian minority.

Multiple sources, ranging from evangelical ministries with contacts inside Iran’s underground church to United Nations human rights investigators, describe the same pattern accelerating through 2026, even as they differ sharply on the numbers.