Christian advocates and human rights analysts are warning that a new Iranian “anti-infiltration” bill, framed as a defence against foreign espionage, could significantly expand the state’s ability to criminalise ordinary contact between Iranian Christians and churches, ministries and media abroad.
Iran’s parliament has approved the general outlines of a 33-article draft law officially described as a plan to counter the infiltration of foreign intelligence services, governments and other external entities. According to the official news agency’s report on the 16 August parliamentary session, 183 lawmakers backed the overall framework, which now proceeds to detailed article-by-article debate. The measure comes on top of existing espionage and national security provisions in Iran’s Islamic Penal Code and follows a series of post-war security laws adopted after a brief conflict with Israel in 2025.
Analysis of the draft text by legal observers highlights broad definitions of “infiltration” that sweep in media work, cultural production, academic collaboration and online engagement whenever authorities judge them to be carried out under foreign guidance or support. Provisions cited by opposition groups state that many forms of activity with a foreign dimension must be registered in a new Interior Ministry system monitored by the Intelligence Ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence arm, with violations punishable by multi-year prison terms, heavy fines and bans from professional activity. Other clauses reported by regional media indicate that policy proposals or public commentary said to be shaped by foreign intelligence services could be treated as threats to national security, with penalties of up to 30 years’ imprisonment.
Several specific articles have drawn particular concern from civil society groups and legal experts. One clause described in coverage by Iranian and international outlets prohibits deliberate contact with foreign intelligence, security or military organisations, as well as any entities later placed on a public blacklist by the Supreme National Security Council. Another criticised article would criminalise giving interviews or participating in discussions with media outlets designated “hostile” by the Intelligence Ministry, while even contact with foreign embassies or international organisations could require prior notification and written permission from the Foreign Ministry. Additional language targets online and cultural work that officials believe misrepresents Iranian society, questions religious rulings or promotes “anti-Islamic” culture, with sanctions including bans from social benefits and professional life.
Concerns about the bill are not limited to opposition figures abroad. Iran International reported that Vice President for Legal Affairs Majid Ansari publicly stated the draft conflicts with the country’s constitution and citizens’ rights, saying the government formally notified parliament of its opposition after reviewing the text in October 2025. Ansari described “fundamental problems” across several provisions and warned that the bill, as written, risked criminalising ordinary professional and civic activity. Despite these objections, the parliament’s hardline majority has pushed the project forward, while the Guardian Council will still need to assess whether the final law complies with Islamic law and the constitution before it can be enforced.
Christian advocacy organisations view the new bill against the backdrop of an expanding web of national security legislation already used to prosecute house-church members and Christian converts. In 2025, lawmakers advanced a separate bill formally titled the Intensification of Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile States Against National Security and Interests, which defines spying or cooperation with “hostile states” as a form of “corruption on earth” punishable by death under Article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code. Iranian and international media have reported that this earlier bill was approved by parliament in late June 2025, though it has faced scrutiny from the Guardian Council. In the year that followed, rights monitors documented a spike in arrests of Christian converts and at least five cases in which Christians were charged under the post-war espionage law, receiving combined sentences of more than 40 years in prison.
The Tehran-based advocacy organisation Article18 has reported that the Ministry of Intelligence recently published a list of “hostile” media organisations and individuals that includes several Christian satellite television channels broadcasting into Iran. The ministry’s announcement warned that any form of “cooperation” with those channels, including sending photographs or videos, could result in prosecution under the new espionage law adopted after the 12-day war with Israel in 2025, and noted that Christians have already been charged under that statute. A June 2026 country policy and information note on Iran’s treatment of Christians, released by the United Kingdom’s Home Office and drawing on multiple advocacy reports, similarly concluded that while most charges against Christians still rely on the amended Article 500 on “propaganda” against Islam, at least five Christians have faced charges under the post-war espionage law. The same document warned that designating Christian media as “hostile” greatly increases the risk that routine contact with foreign Christian ministries, online worship or discipleship training could be recast as a national security offence.
Open Doors’ country profile on Iran notes that parliament has already rushed through an espionage bill introducing the death penalty under broad definitions and granting authorities sweeping powers to punish perceived dissent, and it identifies contact with foreign churches and Christian organisations as a particular vulnerability for believers. A joint annual report by advocacy groups including Article18 documents how most known prosecutions of Iranian Christians rely on vague security-related offences such as “acting against national security” or “propaganda against the system,” while newer espionage provisions are beginning to be used in a small but growing number of cases. With the anti-infiltration bill now moving through Iran’s legislative process, Christian advocates argue that a legal framework is emerging in which communication with overseas churches, participation in Christian media or receiving theological education from abroad could all be treated as evidence of collaboration with “hostile” actors, even when such activity is purely religious in nature. They are urging foreign governments and international bodies to monitor the bill’s progress and to raise the potential impact on religious minorities as Iran’s Guardian Council and other state bodies decide whether, and in what form, the measure will become law.