Current Situation
In 1976, the Christian population numbered 168,593 people, mostly Armenians. Due to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, almost half of the Armenians migrated to the newly-independent Republic of Armenia. However, the opposite trend has occurred since 2000, and the number of Christians with Iranian citizenship increased to 109,415 in 2006. At the same time, significant immigration of Assyrians from Iraq has been recorded due to massacres and harassment in post-Saddam Iraq. However, most of those Assyrians in Iran don't have Iranian citizenship. In 2008, the central office of the International Union of Assyrians was officially transferred to Iran after being hosted in the United States for more than four decades.
| Census | Christians | Total | Percentage | +/- |
| 1976 | 168,593 | 33,708,744 | 0.500% | ... |
| 1986 | 97,557 | 49,445,010 | 0.197% | -42% |
| 1996 | 78,745 | 60,055,488 | 0.131% | -19% |
| 2006 | 109,415 | 70,495,782 | 0.155% | +39% |
The government guarantees the recognized Christian minorities a number of rights (production and sale of non-halal foods), representation in parliament, special family law etc.,. According to US-based Barnabas Fund, government intrusion, expropriation of property, forced closure and persecution, particularly in the initial years after the Iranian Revolution, have all been documented. Most prominent has been the death of Haik Hovsepian Mehr, bishop of the Jamiat-e Rabbani, in 1994. Recently the continuing imprisonment of Hamid Pourmand, a lay pastor of Jammiat-e Rabbani, and the murder of Ghorban Tourani, the pastor of an independent evangelical church have created international concern. Youcef Nadarkhani is an Jammiat-e Rabbani pastor allegedly "sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith". However, Iranian official sources has described such claims as "propaganda".
Iranian Christians tend to be urban, with 50% living in Tehran. There are Satellite networks like Mohabbat TV and Sat7Pars that distribute educational and encouraging programs for Christians, especially targeting Persian speakers. Some Christian ex-Muslims emigrate from Iran for educational, political, security or economic reasons.
Read more about this topic: Christianity In Iran
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