Samantha Kamman,
One of the last remaining historic Protestant churches in Iran is reportedly facing the threat of confiscation by the Iranian government, drawing renewed international attention to the country’s treatment of religious minorities.
Iran has threatened to seize Tehran’s historic St. Peter Evangelical Church and evict the 20 families who reside there, according to multiplereports. Authorities have already seized a 10,000-square-meter garden belonging to the church, which is being occupied by four officials with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, The Jerusalem Post reports.
“I will tell you the literal words they used,” Sasan Tavassoli, a U.S.-based minister with ties to the Presbyterian Church in Iran, said in a statement published by The Free Press this week.
“We were concerned about America all these years. America came. They slapped us on the face,” Tavassoli added. “We slapped them on the face back. And then America withdrew. So we are no longer afraid of America.”
On Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities issued a statement condemning the threatened seizure, as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s treatment of Iran’s Protestant Christian communities.
Task Force Co-Chair Nadine Maenza, a former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), called on the international community to respond to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions.
“As Iran threatens to confiscate St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in Tehran — one of the last remaining historic Protestant churches in the country — and reportedly warns worshippers and church leaders with imprisonment if they refuse to leave, the entire international community must respond with clarity and resolve,” Maenza stated.
“The seizure and demolition of churches are part of a broader pattern of systematic repression against religious minorities, including Christians, Baha’is, Jews and Sunni Muslims,” the former USCIRF chair and commissioner continued.
In early June, the World Communion of Reformed Churches announced that it has received reports that the Evangelical Church of Iran building in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, had been seized and completely demolished on the orders of the Iranian regime.
“A regime that must bulldoze churches and seize the sanctuaries of peaceful congregations is not displaying its strength but confessing its fear — fear of a faith it cannot license, a conscience it cannot conscript, and a people it cannot control,” said Rev. Johnnie Moore, another member of the ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities.
“The Protestant Christians who now gather in living rooms and basements under threat of years in prison are among the most courageous people anywhere on earth, their quiet endurance a standing rebuke to every claim the Islamic Republic makes for its own legitimacy,” Moore, a former USCIRF vice chair and commissioner, added.
Iran ranks as the 10th-worst country in the world for Christian persecution, according to watchdog Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List report. In addition to raids on house churches, Christians in the region face long-term imprisonment, interrogations and hostility from families and local communities.
Earlier this year, the United Kingdom-based monitoring group Article 18 reported that Iran’s security forces killed at least 19 Christians during a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests.
The anti-government protests in Iran began in December 2025 and continued into January and February. Article 18 reported that the killings of the 19 Christians occurred during demonstrations on the evenings of Jan. 8 and 9.
On Dec. 30, 2025, the U.S. State Department shared a video on its Farsi-language account on X that featured clips of the protesters. The department expressed concern at the time about the use of violent force against peaceful demonstrators.
“We are deeply concerned by reports and videos showing that peaceful protesters in Iran are facing intimidation, violence, and arrests,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “Demanding basic rights is not a crime. The Islamic Republic regime must respect the rights of the Iranian people and end the crackdown.”
