Iran’s Campaign of Terror Against Minorities Surges Across Country

State Commits Mass Violent Crimes as It Moves to Suppress Dissent

Huge Surge in Mass Arrests, Violence, and Enforced Disappearances of Kurd, Baluch, Arab, and Azeri Turk Citizens 

January 29, 2025 —The Iranian government has greatly escalated its brutal crackdown on ethnic minority groups in recent weeks, employing unlawful mass raids, violent arrests, and enforced disappearances against hundreds of members of these communities across the country in order to silence peaceful dissent, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said today.

“The systematic persecution of Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, and Azeri Turks has reached alarming levels, as the Islamic Republic escalates its campaign of terror against these communities in order to silence and suppress them,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI’s executive director.

“The targeting of Iran’s minority communities is a deliberate state strategy to silence dissent, erase cultural identities, and exert control over communities who have long been subjected to the Islamic Republic’s oppressive and discriminatory policies,” Ghaemi said.

CHRI calls on the UN and governments worldwide to demand that the Islamic Republic immediately cease its unlawful mass raids, violent arrests, enforced disappearances, and other rights violations against minority communities across the country.

Arab Minority Community Face Mass Arrests

Iran’s Arab ethnic minority in Khuzestan Province, many of whom belong to Sunni religious communities in a predominantly Shia country and therefore are subjected to both ethnic and religious discrimination and oppression by the state, are one of the communities that have been increasingly targeted.

Between December 9, 2024, and January 22, 2025, the Karun Human Rights Organization documented at least 63 Arab arrests, including of civil rights activists, labor organizers, poets, and religious figures. Many were seized without warrants and held in undisclosed locations.

Reports indicate that entire neighborhoods in Ahvaz, Susangard, and Khorramshahr have been raided by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence units, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the police, with family members left without information about their loved ones’ whereabouts. 

“Mass arrests have always occurred when authorities feared increased street protests.”

In an interview with CHRI conducted on January 28, 2025, Ahmad Hamidi, Spokesperson for the Karun Human Rights Organization, said: 

“Mass arrests of this kind have a history in Khuzestan and Ahvaz. They have always occurred during periods when the authorities feared increased street protests. These actions aim to prevent protests from emerging and spreading.

“The individuals arrested in recent weeks come from diverse segments of society and cannot be categorized as belonging to a specific group. Among the detainees are labor and civil activists, writers, poets, cultural figures, and even Sunni Muslims.

“In the past, particularly during the Jina uprising [the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests] and earlier during the November 2019 protests, there were many arrests in Khuzestan’s cities. However, every year since 2005, as the anniversary of the Ahvaz uprising approaches (referring to protests in Khuzestan that year that led to a violent state crackdown), security forces have carried out such mass arrests.”

“After Assad’s fall in Syria, the regime felt threatened.”

“Regarding the recent arrests, it is crucial to highlight that after Bashar al-Assad’s fall and the Islamic Republic’s successive defeats in the region, the regime felt threatened and preemptively launched mass arrests in areas it predicted could become centers of protest. This pattern has also been observed in other cities. For example, arrests have intensified in Kurdistan, and in Tehran, a 110,000-person security drill was conducted as a show of intimidation.

“Additionally, after Assad’s fall, demonstrations in support of the Syrian revolution took place in Ahvaz. …The demonstrations certainly raised alarms for authorities, reinforcing their perception that the potential for widespread unrest in Khuzestan is high.”

“Prosecutor of Ahvaz: 182 people have been arrested.”

“Our organization has compiled a list of over 70 detainees, but the number is undoubtedly higher. Unfortunately, obtaining information on all those arrested remains difficult due to various restrictions.

“Among the detainees is a 23-year-old woman who owned a small bookstore in Lashgarabad, Ahvaz, and a writer who authored children’s short stories in Arabic. The scope of these arrests is significant, not only in terms of the social backgrounds of those detained but also geographically, as arrests have taken place across multiple cities, including Susangerd, Ahvaz, Khorramshahr, Mahshahr, and Ramshir.

“Recently, Amir Khalafian, the prosecutor of Ahvaz, stated that 182 people have been arrested. Some of the individuals who were summoned and interrogated or released from detention on extremely heavy bail have indicated that they were forced to sign a written commitment not to participate in any protests if they were to begin.

“One of the charges against some detainees is collaboration, communication, and espionage for one of the Gulf countries. However, the authorities have not specified which country.”

“We are witnessing gross violations of detainees’ rights.”

Hamidi told CHRI that the recent wave of arrests has been marked by serious violations of detainees’ rights, with security forces using aggressive tactics. He explained that many arrests were carried out at night through home raids or at workplaces, with some incidents involving armed forces firing shots to create fear. Hamidi emphasized that many of those detained were from lower-income backgrounds or had participated in previous protests:

“Regarding the methods and forms of some arrests, it must be noted that the process of detention, summoning, and trial—as well as all other stages—does not conform to any legal procedures, not even the judicial process outlined in the Islamic Republic’s laws. In most cases, we witness gross violations of detainees’ rights.

“In many cases, security forces have raided individuals’ homes at night to arrest them. In other instances, they have carried out arrests at individuals’ workplaces. In one case for which images exist, armed forces carried out an arrest by firing multiple shots and creating a climate of fear and intimidation.

“These arrests were carried out by the IRGC Intelligence Organization, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the police force.

“In November 2019, many of those arrested came from the lower-income segments of society and smaller cities. Some of the recent detainees were among those who had participated in those protests or had been under the surveillance of security and intelligence forces since then.”

Kurdish Community: A Relentless Assault

The Kurdish population has also faced an intensified crackdown since late 2024. Since the start of January 2025, there have been further arrests of Kurdish activists, including women’s rights defenders, former political prisoners, and labor organizers. 

On January 22, businesses and shopkeepers went on strike across Kurdish cities to protest the death sentences against Kurdish women activists Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi. At least 12 Kurdish civilians and activists were arrested in less than a week, and security forces forcibly shut down many businesses in Sanandaj, Mahabad, and Kermanshah for participating in the strike.

Additionally, on January 24, 2025, Amjad Amini, the father of Mahsa Jina Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman killed in police custody in September 2022, revealed that he was charged with “propaganda against the state” after protesting the death sentence of Kurdish activist Pakhshan Azizi. The Amini family is among the many families of protest victims who face ongoing arrests, intimidation, and judicial harassment from the government.

In December alone, 88 Kurdish individuals—constituting 71.5% of all documented arrests that month—were detained by security forces, according to the Hengaw human rights organization. Over the course of 2024, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network recorded 474 Kurdish arrests across Iran, including children, Sunni clerics, and justice-seeking family members of state violence victims.

Executions among Kurds have also risen sharply, with 136 Kurdish prisoners executed in 2024. At least ten Kurds were executed for political reasons; however, many were executed for drug-related charges in violation of international law, as outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires that capital punishment only be applied in the “most serious” crimes. Drug offenses do not meet this threshold. 

Additionally, Kurdish cross-border couriers (kulbars) remain targets of lethal and unlawful state force; at least 212 were injured, and 37 were killed by border guards in 2024.

Violent Arrests and Denied Due Process

In an interview with CHRI on January 29, 2025, a knowledgeable Kurdish source, who must remain anonymous for security reasons, provided insight into the recent arrests in Kurdistan province, stating that the arrests were carried out by Ministry of Intelligence forces without judicial warrants and often involved violence. The detainees were also deprived of due process and legal representation. 

“Most of the recent arrests in Kurdistan are related to the strikes protesting the execution sentences of Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi. These arrests and summonses have all been carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence forces. The majority of those arrested have been taken to the central detention centers of the Ministry of Intelligence in Urmia or Sanandaj.

“Some of these arrests were conducted with violence. In none of the cases did the officers possess a judicial warrant. The detainees have been denied visits with their families and access to legal representation since their arrest.”

The source added that the recent strikes across Kurdistan cities were widespread, and the security forces’ crackdown on strikers was harsher than ever. Additionally, many businesses were threatened with reprisals if they participated in the strike.

“A few days before the strikes began, a representative of the governor and a representative from the Ministry of Intelligence held a meeting with some business owners and market vendors at the Kurdistan Governor’s Office. In that meeting, they warned shopkeepers and traders not to protest or strike against the execution sentences of Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi. It was a threatening meeting.

“Exactly one day before the strikes, Ministry of Intelligence agents held a meeting with well-known civil and labor activists at a hotel, where they also threatened them, saying they had no right to protest the executions of Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi. During the meeting, they showed videos about political prisoners, attempting to convince the activists that these prisoners had engaged in armed activities and had connections with foreign countries, implying that they should not be supported.

“Since then, media outlets close to the Ministry of Intelligence have been broadcasting multiple documentary-style propaganda videos about Varisheh Moradi, Pakhshan Azizi, and Kurdish groups while simultaneously threatening activists and the public against protesting or striking over this issue. None of this is a good sign—it could indicate that the authorities intend to take the harshest measures against these prisoners.”

Recent documented arrests of Kurdish individuals in January 2025 include: 

January 20-26, 2025: Eight Kurds, including a juvenile and a woman, were arrested by security agents in Mahabad, Naghadeh, Kamyaran, Marivan, Sanandaj, and Sardasht. The individuals arrested were Parsa Rostami, Parvin Advaei, Naser Ahmadzadeh, Afshin Mostafapour, Farzad Hamidi, Zagros Rasouli, Shirzad Qaleh, and Parsa Rahimi.

January 23, 2025: Brothers Nariman and Milad Rendani, Kurdish civil rights activists from Saqqez, were arrested by security agents and taken to an undisclosed location.

January 22, 2025: Security agents forcibly entered Jalil Mohammadi’s home in Sanandaj and arrested him for participating in the anti-execution strikes in Kurdish cities. Women’s rights activist Soheila Mataei was arrested in Dehgolan, and at least six other arrests were reported in Sanandaj in connection with the same strike.

January 21, 2024: Benyamin Rahimpour, a former political prisoner, was arrested in Sanandaj by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence agents. His arrest occurred during a raid on his shop, and he was taken to the Shahramfar security detention center without a warrant.

January 20-21, 2024: Six individuals were arrested in Piranshahr and transferred to an undisclosed location. The detainees were Jigar Mojahedi, Keyvan Asaseh, Farhad Pelleh, Rahim Alizadeh, Hassan Hassannezhad, and Mohammad Amin Hassannezhad.

January 20, 2024: Parvin Advaei, a Kurdish women’s rights activist and former political prisoner, was arrested in Marivan after being summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence. The charges against her and her current whereabouts remain unknown.

January 19, 2024: Kurdish women’s rights activist Aida Amooie was arrested in Sanandaj after receiving several warnings from security officials for her protests against the death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi.

January 19-20, 2024: Security agents arrested at least six individuals in Piranshahr, northwest Iran. The detainees included Hiwa Shojaei, Mohammad Sohrabi, Fardin Mahmoudi, Morad Ostavar, Nemat Ahmadnejad, and Anvar Ebrahimi. There is no information about the reasons for their arrests and their whereabouts.

Baluch Community Face Mass Raids

The Baluch community in southeastern Iran also continues to endure disproportionate levels of targeted state violence, with mass arrests, abductions, and state violence sweeping through their communities.

In early January 2025, at least 38 individuals were detained in a pre-dawn raid in Zahedan. Other targeted arrests followed, with security forces abducting five members of the Roudini family in Sarakhs and transferring them to an undisclosed location on January 23, 2025. 

The Baluch Activists Campaign reported that at least 400 Baluch, including five women and 30 juveniles, were arrested by Iranian military forces in 2024. Additionally, at least 101 Baluch prisoners were executed in 2024, which reflects the state’s hugely disproportionate application of the death penalty to minority communities. Most were convicted on drug-related charges, which is unlawful under international law standards that limit the use of capital punishment to only the “most serious” crimes.

On January 28, 2025, Iranian security forces in Delgan shot and killed Abul Bamari, a 30-year-old Baluch citizen. According to Haalvsh, forces fired on Bamari’s vehicle without warning, injuring him and a passenger. After pulling him from the car, they executed him at close range with multiple shots. The other passenger was wounded and detained.

Sources told Haalvsh: “From the vehicle, the forces placed him on the ground and shot him multiple times from a distance of two meters, killing him. They took Bamari’s body without providing any explanation for their actions.”

Azeri Turks Face Arrests on Sham Charges

Azeri Turk activists have also faced intensified persecution in January. Between January 11 and January 22, twelve Azeri Turk activists in Tabriz were interrogated and faced political charges such as “membership in an illegal group with the intent to oppose the regime” and “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security.”

On January 15, 2025, Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of nine Azeri Turk activists and attorney Taher Naghavi in a politically motivated case involving baseless national security charges. During the preliminary trial, the notorious Judge Abolghasem Salavati had initially sentenced the individuals to a total of 81 years in prison, along with additional penalties.

UN Decries Iran’s Violent Persecution of Minority Communities

Last year, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran found that ethnic and religious minorities, including Kurds, Baluchis, Azeri Turks, and Ahwazi Arabs, had the highest and most sustained involvement in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. These communities, which included many children, suffered the greatest number of casualties and endured widespread violence, including killings, maiming, arrests, enforced disappearances, detention, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence throughout the uprising.

“The international community must not stay silent as Iran’s ethnic minorities face an ever-growing onslaught of state repression,” Ghaemi said. “The mass arrests, extrajudicial killings, and systematic suppression of cultural identities demand urgent global attention.”