Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) support persecuted Christians in Iran, and (b) combat gender specific persecution of women in that country.

The UK supports the fundamental rights of women, and religious minority groups, including Christians, in Iran by ensuring the Iranian regime is held to account. We do this in part through our sanctions designations: HMG has announced seven rounds of Iran human rights sanctions since October 2022. We also work with our international partners in multilateral fora, for example by removing Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. We also raise human rights directly with the Iranian authorities at all appropriate opportunities, including through our Ambassador in Tehran, to ensure the regime is in no doubt about the political price it is paying for its actions.