http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=34545

Reports of abuses by Iran of religious freedom and other human rights are common. It is one of only eight countries to be classified by the U.S. State Department as "countries of particular concern," a designation reserved for the world's worst violators of religious liberty.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reported Jan. 7 that as many as 70 Christians had been taken into custody since Christmas. Most of those detained were evangelical Christians, but some were part of the country's Armenian Christian community, according to USCIRF.