Iran’s confiscation of St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in Tehran, also known as Qavam Church, and the eviction of the 27 members of the Christian community who lived within its compound must be reversed, UN experts demanded on Wednesday.
“Twenty families, most of whom are low-income, long-standing residents of the compound, were reportedly given just two weeks to leave their homes. The church’s leaders were threatened with arrest if they failed to comply. The final resident left on 12 July, prompting fears that the complex may be demolished,” the experts said. “Forced evictions are incompatible with international human rights law and risk leaving members of recognized religious and ethnic minorities homeless.”
The ten-acre compound in central Tehran held homes, offices and two schools in addition to the church itself. The Bible Society and the Council of Evangelical Churches of Iran, which owns the land, also had an office on site. Regime authorities already seized an expansive garden belonging to the church complex, threatening to arrest community members trying to access the ground under the charge of trespassing, according to earlier reports.
Sasan Tavassoli, a US-based minister with the Presbyterian Church in Iran, told international media weeks ago, when threats from the regime intensified, that the church property was now worth tens of millions of dollars, and that they had been expressly told that the seizure was being carried out because the regime no longer feared America.
Despite the council owning the land, a 1998 Revolutionary Court transferred the compound into the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, which has prevented the council from re-registering.
'The latest incident of a regime forcing the closure of Christian sites'
“This is not an isolated incident, but the culmination of a long pattern of measures directed against Iran’s Christian community, and in particular against Persian-speaking Christian worship,” the experts said.
The UN experts noted that the seizure of this church was just the latest incident of regime authorities forcing the closure of Christian sites. A Presbyterian church was demolished in Mashhad in June 2026, after being forced to close decades earlier, and the last three Anglican churches permitted to preach in Persian have not been allowed to reopen since the COVID-19 shutdowns.
Though Iran is now effectively void of Persian Protestant places of worship, as they have either been forced to close or stop offering services in the language, there had once been around 50 churches from that denomination across Iran.
“Freedom of religion or belief includes the freedom to worship in community with others, in one’s own language, and to maintain places of worship. When a church is confiscated, a community loses not only a building but a place of worship and community life,” the experts said.
Outside the forced closure of Persian Christian spaces, the UN experts noted that Christians continue to face arrest, detention and ill-treatment in Iran. At least 79 Christians are detained or imprisoned, the vast majority of whom are converts.
The experts noted that some Christians, including convert Mohammad Nikbaht, were forced to confess to crimes under torture. Nikbakht was beaten at his home in Golpaygan in March 2026 and held incommunicado in Dastgerd Prison, while his family have been deprived of any access to information or legal counsel.
Christian convert sentenced to prison, 74 lashes over compulsory hijab violation
Earlier this month, human rights groups reported that Ghazal Marzban Joorashari, a Gilak Christian convert imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison, was sentenced to six months in prison and the inhumane punishment of 74 lashes for “failing to observe compulsory hijab.”
Marzban, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison only a few months earlier for charges linked to her Christian faith and activities. Investigators were said to have pressured Marzban during questioning to admit that her Bible and Christian literature were being used for evangelism, something that she denied throughout her interrogation.
Her conversion was also said to have seen her barred from sitting for her bar examination despite her degree in Islamic law.
Mena, a Middle East-based representative of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, told The Jerusalem Post, “We strongly condemn the seizure of the St Peter’s Evangelical Church compound, and the accompanying forced removal of many low income families from affordable homes on the premises. This injustice contravenes the Iranian constitution, which recognises the right of the Christian community ‘to perform their religious rites and ceremonies’, and also violates the nation's obligations under the ICCPR and ICESCR with regard to freedom of religion or belief, and the right to adequate housing.
“Constructed in the late 1800s, St Peter's Evangelical Church also constitutes a heritage site. Several other Christian properties have been seized in a similar manner.
“CSW is urging the Iranian authorities to respect sites of Christian and cultural heritage, halt all expropriations, return confiscated properties to rightful owners and focus on the welfare of citizens, including by fulfilling the right to FoRB for every religious community.”