Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Iranian authorities of unleashing mass arrests, executions and repression of minorities under the guise of national security following June’s war with Israel.
On Wednesday, the rights groups said more than 20,000 people have been arrested since June 13, when Israeli forces struck Iranian military and nuclear sites in a series of surprise attacks. Many detainees face charges carrying the death penalty.
“The authorities’ domestic machinery of repression remains unrelenting as they ratchet up already oppressive widespread surveillance, mass arrests and incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence against minorities,” Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International said.
Those detained include political dissidents, journalists, social media users, families of victims of earlier protests, Afghans, and members of Iran’s Kurdish, Baluch, Baha’i, Christian and Jewish minorities, according to Amnesty and HRW.
Security forces have been accused of killing civilians at checkpoints, including a three-year-old girl.
At least nine men have been executed on charges widely seen as politically motivated or linked to accusations of spying for Israel.
Executions and new legislation
Those cooperating with Israel faced “serious punishment, including the death penalty,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i, Iran’s judiciary chief, warned in July.
Approximately 21,000 people had been arrested, police spokesperson Saeed Montazer Al-Mahdi announced in a statement on August 12.
State media have echoed calls for expedited trials, with some outlets openly invoking the 1988 prison massacres when thousands of political prisoners were summarily executed.
In the first half of 2025, Iran carried out 612 executions—double the number in previous years—prompting alarm from UN human rights bodies.
Parliament has also advanced legislation expanding the use of capital punishment by defining espionage for “hostile governments” as “corruption on earth,” a charge that carries the death penalty. The bill awaits approval by the Guardian Council.
Targeting minorities
“Since June, the human rights situation in Iran has spiraled deeper into crisis with Iranian authorities scapegoating and targeting dissidents and minorities for a conflict they had nothing to do with,” said Michael Page, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at HRW.
At least 330 of the country's long-targeted Kurds have been detained since the war began, while Baluch women were among those killed during raids in the volatile Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Baha’i homes and businesses have been searched, and dozens of community members have been jailed on accusations of spying for Israel. Christians and Jews have also faced arrests and interrogations, with reports of coerced televised confessions, added Amnesty.
Calls for accountability
Amnesty and HRW urged the immediate release of those arbitrarily detained, a halt to executions, and international investigations under universal jurisdiction. The crackdown signals “a looming human rights catastrophe” for Iran’s most vulnerable groups, they said.
Without outside pressure, the combination of mass arrests, rushed trials, and discriminatory targeting could entrench a cycle of repression that deepens the humanitarian fallout of the June conflict, the organizations warned.
“Activating the snapback mechanism is against international norms and lacks legal validity,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters. “Seven years after the United States unilaterally violated the nuclear deal, instead of being held accountable, Europe has now chosen to activate this process.”
Jahangir described the snapback as “a psychological and propaganda tool rather than a real threat,” saying its aim was to undermine public morale.
“The enemy is trying to create dissatisfaction in society through noise and psychological warfare, but experience has shown that the Iranian people resist sanctions, hardships and aggression with determination,” he said.
He urged the media to act “intelligently” in covering the issue. “We must not allow anyone to feed into false divisions at home or damage national unity,” he added.
His comments come as Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has issued a confidential directive to newsroom editors, seen by Iran International, ordering outlets to limit coverage of the snapback process.
The instructions warn against “emotional” or “crisis-oriented” headlines and call for presenting the sanctions as manageable.
Editors were told not to highlight potential economic risks such as inflation, devaluation of the rial, or volatility in gold and foreign exchange markets, which officials fear could worsen public anxiety.
Instead, media are encouraged to frame the sanctions as evidence of European weakness, stress Iran’s resilience under pressure, and highlight internal political and economic problems in the West.
The directive follows warnings by domestic economists that renewed UN sanctions could intensify inflation and weaken the currency.
Last month, the Tehran Chamber of Commerce projected the dollar could climb to 1.65 million rials under pessimistic scenarios, but the report was later downplayed after members of the chamber’s international affairs team were questioned by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence unit.
Reza Salehi Amiri, minister of cultural heritage, tourism and handicrafts, said plans for recovery were underway amid the challenges posed by the war. “The policy we defined for after the recent war is the product of lengthy expert work in the ministry,” he said.
However, he said that recovery was contingent on broader security conditions. “Our forecast is that within the next six months, if stability is defined and threats removed, we can return to our previous program,” he said.
New visa hurdles
Iran’s foreign ministry enacted new restrictions on visitor entry in the wake of the war, the Travel and Tour World website reported last month. The rules ban individual travel, require official contracts with registered agencies, and oblige travelers to provide their hotel bookings and complete itineraries. A licensed guide must accompany tourists throughout their stay.
Visa applicants must also submit résumés, education records, travel history, and links to their social media accounts, with embassy reviews stretching up to three weeks, according to the outlet. In July, other industry websites circulated the same requirements, which took effect on August 1.
According to August figures, arrivals had already fallen 53 percent from the year before, the deputy tourism minister, Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpey, said, attributing the decline to the 12-day war and what he called a campaign of Iranophobia.
Industry strain
Hotel operators have likewise cited losses. Cancellations in western provinces had reached billions of rials, Jamshid Hamzezadeh, head of Iran’s hoteliers’ association, told state media in July.
“Travel has effectively fallen out of priority in many people’s lives,” he said.
Iran’s hotel industry faces challenges that long predate the war. Inflation and stagnant household incomes had already pushed travel out of reach for many families, concentrating spending on food and housing.
The country has also seen a downturn following international warnings from countries such as the US warning against travel to Iran citing fears of arbitrary detention, especially for dual nationals.
Salehi Amiri said last year that the ministry was planning to expand accommodation capacity. “We are obliged to open 100 hotels annually,” he said, adding that many of Iran’s 1,430 existing hotels fall short of international standards.
The discussion about building this number of hotels comes while, according to industry officials, the current newly built hotels do not even have the minimum number of guests to cover their expenses.
The newspaper Payam-e Ma criticized Salehi Amiri's remarks. "It would be better, since the minister himself has said that many hotels are not in a position to attract tourists, for the government to focus on standardizing existing hotels instead of opening new ones," he said.
The country, historically known for its rich cultural and historical heritage as well as its natural beauty, has struggled to attract foreign tourists in recent years. Despite its allure, the country faced challenges such as strict dress codes for women and restrictions on alcohol and nightlife.
Data from the Statistical Center of the Islamic Republic shows that the number of incoming tourists to Iran in 2023 was 6.4 million, up from 4.2 million in 2022, when the Woman, Life, Freedom protests rocked the country.
However, before the pandemic, the peak of foreign tourist arrivals to Iran was in 2018 and 2019, with 7.8 million and 8.8 million tourists entering the country, respectively.
“Locking up independent journalists is a critical part of the Islamic Republic’s strategy to silence dissent and hold onto power,” CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi said, urging the UN, governments and international media groups to press for the release of imprisoned journalists and the protection of press freedom.
“The international community should speak out for the individuals in Iran sacrificing their livelihoods and often their freedom to speak truth to power,” he added.
Citing Reporters Without Borders data, CHRI said that at least 21 journalists are currently detained in Iran and that the country ranks 176th out of 180 on press freedom.
While Article 24 of Iran’s constitution guarantees a free press, CHRI said Iran’s press laws enable repression through charges such as spreading false information, insulting the Supreme Leader, propaganda against the state, and endangering the Islamic Republic.
The group listed recent cases, including summonses and prosecutions of reporters in multiple provinces; a three-month prison sentence for journalist Omid Faraghat on “propaganda” charges; the detention of photojournalists covering the aftermath of Israeli strikes on state broadcaster IRIB; and the August 19 shuttering of the Tehran Journalists’ Trade Association office, which the association called “a blatant assault on professional independence.”
CHRI also highlighted the Intelligence Ministry’s announcement that it summoned or detained 98 people described as “citizen-journalists” over alleged ties to an overseas Persian-language outlet during the June Iran-Israel war, without providing names or legal status.
In an interview published by CHRI, a female journalist described licensing hurdles, pervasive security vetting, and what she called a “mafia-like, state-controlled” media market that forces self-censorship or exile.
In a separate nationwide survey of provincial crackdowns after US and Israeli strikes on Iran, CHRI said at least 58 activists, lawyers and bereaved family members were arbitrarily detained, at least 25 were charged or sentenced, 11 political prisoners faced intensified pressure including denial of medical care, and at least six people were executed on espionage charges.
CHRI said minorities were disproportionately targeted and called for robust international scrutiny and accountability measures.
