“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
In this article, we discuss four of the main reasons why the Iranian regime is evil, looking at its past and present actions.
This article is not for the faint-hearted. While you may know some of the evil of the regime, some of these truths are little known, are far worse than most people realise, and they will shock you. But it is important that we expose evil, and that we take it to the Lord!
1. Iran Seeks to Destroy the Jewish People
Iran has long been viewed by Christians as a significant player in End Time Prophecy. Ezekiel 38:5 describes ‘Persia’ (which is modern-day Iran) as being part of the armies going against Israel in a future battle. And the Bible speaks of the ‘Prince of Persia’ being a principality that is against God and Israel. The Archangel Michael, the defender of Israel, has to go to war against this power.
The most famous attempt of the ‘Prince of Persia’ trying to destroy the Jewish people is found in the Book of Esther, when we see how Haman planned to wipe out the Jewish people.
“Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to annihilate, kill, and destroy all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder.” – Esther 3:13
The king was tricked by Haman, but ultimately God used Esther and Mordecai to save his people, and Haman was hanged on the gallows.
This story is from the past, but as the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun. It seems that these powers over certain regions and nations have recurring roles in world history.
The current ‘king of Persia’, the Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khamenei, also seeks the annihilation of the Jewish people.
Iran is the world’s largest sponsor of state terrorism, funding and controlling Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fully, including heavily funding and arming Hamas.
Khamenei describes Israel as a “cancerous tumour” that needs to be “eradicated”. And he believes that if he can obtain nuclear weapons and use them to wipe out Israel, then it will result in global Shariah Law. This is just part of the Iranian regime’s warped Islamist ideology that is a threat not only to Israel, but to Jews worldwide and to the Christian world.
To show that things repeat themselves. It should be noted that the first time Iran ever directly attacked Israel from Iranian territory was 13 April 2024, which happened to also be the 13th day of Adar in the Jewish calendar. Re-read that Scripture above, and you’ll see that this date was the exact date that Haman had planned to slaughter the Jews.
Thankfully, just like Haman’s plans, the plans of the Ayatollah were thwarted when the 300 missiles and drones launched against Israel were shot out of the sky by Israel and its allies before any major damage could occur.
Maybe the Archangel Michael was watching in battlewith the Prince of Persia that night also?
2. The Regime Murders Its Own People to Stay in Power
The Iranian regime has demonstrated, time and again, that it will slaughter its own citizens to retain control of the country. This has been witnessed by the world in recent weeks.
Ayatollah Khamenei and his regime have strong Islamist religious beliefs, and oftentimes, citizens who protest against the government, even regarding practical struggles, are deemed “enemies of Allah”. This charge carries the death penalty.
In 1988, following an Islamic fatwa by a top Islamic cleric, around 30,000 Iranians were slaughtered. Innocent civilians were gunned down in the streets, and those who were arrested were sentenced to death and publicly executed.
Does this sound familiar?
Fast forward to today, and thousands of Iranians are being murdered in the streets for protesting against the regime.
Protesters, dissidents, journalists, and women who take off their hijabs are being shot dead in cold blood, arrested, tortured, and executed.
This is pure evil. And it shows that if the Iranian regime is willing to do this to its own people, then it will do far worse to others.
3. Child Sacrifices to Demoralise the Enemy
Okay, this point may appear far-fetched at first read, but it is true.
The Iranian regime sent tens-of-thousands of children to their deaths, using them as human shields, cannon fodder, and mine clearers.
It is estimated that around 40,000 Iranian children between the ages of 11 and 16 were killed during the Iran-Iraq War because the Iranian military brainwashed them into believing they would go straight to heaven as martyrs as long as they wore a plastic key around their neck and walked into battle.
The children believed that if they stepped on a landmine and cleared it for the tanks, or if they were shot instead of the men with weapons, they would go to heaven.
Iraqi veterans spoke of their disbelief at the encounters with “waves of Iranian child soldiers” who were unarmed and used as bullet sponges and human shields for Iran’s army.
Oftentimes, Iraqi soldiers were forced to gun down children in order to take out the advancing Iranian forces. Many refused to shoot the children, and this was part of the tactic. The Iranian regime wanted to break the morale of its enemies. It is an extremely warped ideology.
Nobody knows for certain how many thousands of children died, but the regime itself said 36,000 school children.
Brigadier General Mohammad-Saleh Jokar, who headed up the ‘Students of Basij’ regiment, said that 36,000 school children died, and around 2,853 were injured. This is an astonishing rate.
In most wars, the number injured is greater than those killed. But for the children, it was the reverse. They were unarmed, untrained, and brainwashed into believing death meant paradise. They even wore little keys around their necks, which they were told would grant them entry.
Jokar currently remains as a commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), so there is little reason to suspect he is lying. The regime hasn’t refuted this claim, and Jokar has been promoted since making it.
CUFI is currently running a campaign to outlaw the IRGC in Britain. Shockingly, despite its abhorrent past, members of the IRGC are able to travel to and operate within the UK without restriction. It must come to an end. Sign the campaign today to help out.
4. The Iranian Regime Uses Rape as a Weapon
Iranian women are living under Islamist oppression. There are ‘morality police’ in Iran who will arrest or beat women for not wearing their hijabs or breaking the rules of the regime. Women have been shot dead simply for removing their hijabs, for example.
But there is a particularly sinister tactic used by the regime to instil fear and as a way of brutally punishing women who stand up to the Iranian regime, and that is the rape of women in prisons.
Between 2010 and 2024, thousands of women have been sentenced to death in Iran’s prisons. Almost all of them were raped first.
This is a well-documented practice that is sick to the core. It was used as far back as the 1980s, and it has been reported by the UN as far back as 1991, when the UN Economic and Social Council’s report on the issue said: “There were many reports that virgins had been raped before being executed.”
Even as recently as 2024, a UN Special Rapporteur Report documented how rape and other sexual violence had been “instrumentalised against women and girls”.
Why does the regime do this?
Again, it is all part of the Iranian regime’s warped Islamist ideology.
The regime’s clerics believe that if a virgin woman dies before having sex, they will go to heaven rather than being punished in the afterlife.
On the night before execution, guards rape the women first, so they are no longer virgins before execution. This is framed by Islamist clerics as a way of preventing a woman’s soul from going to heaven.
This all goes back to the “enemies of Allah” belief. The regime doesn’t just want to kill those who oppose them; they want to damn their souls. And when it comes to women, they believe they have a way of doing that through rape. And as we said before, this is well documented.
As a result, most female prisoners are said to fear the night before their execution more than the execution itself. And guards in women’s prisons are often abusing women long before then. The number one requested item from women in Iranian prisons is birth control pills.
We cannot begin to express how evil this is. We don’t even want to write about it, but this is a reality for the women being arrested and imprisoned by the regime to this day, and this evil must be exposed.
NOTE: Hamas Does All These Things
You will note that everything we’ve said above could be applied to Hamas. It is a spiritual battle as much as it is a physical one.
- Hamas wants to destroy the Jewish people.
- Hamas murders its own people. In the war, Hamas fighters k`illed more Palestinians than they killed Israelis. And hundreds of Palestinians have been murdered in the streets since the ceasefire.
- Hamas uses its children as human shields, sacrificing them for the “cause of Allah” and brainwashing them to become martyrs.
- Hamas uses rape as a weapon, such as on October 7th, and numerous female ex-hostages attest to being subjected to rape whilst in captivity.
This shouldn’t surprise us because the same antisemitic spirit that is within the regime of Iran is within the terrorists of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). And all of these terrorist groups are armed and funded by the Iranian regime.
The spirit of antisemitism that is against Israel is well and truly alive today. It didn’t die out with Haman in the book of Esther. And the victims of this evil are not only the Jews, but all who the regime opposes.
As we said at the start of this article, while there are real world battles taking place, our enemy is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. We must bring this fight to the lord. We must pray for the people of Iran, pray for the protection of Israel. And look forward to the day that God deals with this evil Himself.
Until then, please help CUFI raise awareness to our government about the crimes of Iran, urging them to outlaw the IRGC, which is the spearhead of all the evil operations we have listed above, by signing the petition below.
Tell the UK Government to Outlaw the IRGC
