On a recent Prisoners of Hope podcast, we were joined again by Dr. Sasan Tavassoli, an Iranian-born pastor, scholar, and advocate for the Iranian people. Two weeks ago, Dr. Tavassoli told us the unfolding situation in Iran could be “bigger than the fall of Berlin.” Since then, the scale of what has happened has only confirmed, and exceeded, those words.
What Happened on January 8th and 9th
In early January, millions of Iranians took to the streets in peaceful protest across the country. The regime’s response was not teargas or rubber bullets. It was a coordinated mass killing.
Over January 8th and 9th, Iranian security forces opened fire on civilians in over four hundred cities and four thousand separate locations across the country. According to Dr. Tavassoli, documented reports confirm a minimum of 36,500 dead, with credible estimates now reaching as high as 50,000 to 60,000.
To put that in perspective: in the entire Syrian civil war’s first year, the Assad regime killed approximately 5,000 people. The Iranian regime exceeded that many times over in roughly ten hours of coordinated slaughter.
“More people have been killed in Iran per hour than have been killed in Gaza, in all the wars that we can think of. This is a mass tragedy unique in human history.”
— Dr. Sasan Tavassoli
The brutality was not incidental, but deliberate and sadistic. Snipers targeted heads and necks. Guards told victims they wouldn’t kill them, then machine-gunned their legs or shot them in ways designed to maim and humiliate. Children, the elderly, men and women alike were cut down indiscriminately.
Hospitals Became Death Traps
Our field team inside Iran reported that the horror did not end in the streets. Security forces entered hospitals and arrested wounded individuals, including people suffering from gunshot wounds and severe bleeding. Some were reportedly executed after arrest. In other cases, medical staff were physically prevented from treating patients, leading to preventable deaths.
As a result, many of the injured have stayed in their homes rather than risk going to a hospital. Underground doctors are providing what treatment they can.
The regime has continued rounding up civilians from their homes for interrogation. Families are then called to come collect the dead bodies of their children. Iran’s notorious prisons are overflowing; warehouses are being converted to hold the overflow. Tens of thousands are imprisoned, and executions and torture continue.
A Voice from Inside Iran
Dr. Tavassoli shared the story of a dear friend, a passionate evangelist and preacher of the gospel inside Iran, who was able to briefly connect to the internet and send a message. He had been shot in his left eye by regime forces and is now blind. His sister was shot in the stomach. They could not go to a hospital for fear of arrest and execution, so they sought treatment from an underground doctor.
“I prayed for the person who shot me in the eye. I prayed that God would bring them to repentance, would open their eyes. I’m going to go back to the streets. If you don’t hear from me, know that I tried to be a faithful follower of Jesus and to be a voice for our oppressed people.”
— An Iranian believer, from inside Iran
Another family contacted Dr. Tavassoli after their twenty-year-old son, a Christian, was murdered by the regime. The father’s plea was simple and devastating: “Pastor Sasan, please be our voice from inside Iran. Tell the West what’s happening.”
Bigger Than the Berlin Wall: A Religious Revolution
Dr. Tavassoli believes what is unfolding in Iran is not merely a political revolution—it is a religious one. After 47 years under a theocratic regime that has wielded violence in the name of God, the Iranian people are finished with Islam as they have known it.
Reports have emerged that Revolutionary Guard forces were quoting Quranic verses over their communication channels before opening fire on civilians. The violence is not a perversion of the regime’s ideology but an expression of it. And the Iranian people see that clearly now.
In a powerful cultural turning point, many Iranians are saying they will no longer commemorate the historic martyrdom of Hussein, a foundational event in Shiite Islam involving 72 deaths, because they now know what their own government is capable of on a scale that dwarfs that ancient event.
“This is not only a political revolution. This is a religious revolution. The traditional approach to militant, fanatical Islam—they are finished in Iran. And they will bring, I believe, a global reformation in the Islamic world.”
— Dr. Sasan Tavassoli
This is the gospel opportunity of our generation. Millions of Iranians are done with the religion that oppressed them. But because everything they suffered happened under the name of God, many have given up on God altogether. They do not yet distinguish between the God of Islam and the God revealed in Jesus Christ. The Church has a sacred responsibility to show them the difference, not with words alone, but with love in action.
How to Pray
• For God’s protection over innocent lives in Iran, especially believers and those being hunted by the regime.
• For comfort for the tens of thousands of families who have lost loved ones in unimaginable ways.
• For our field team members Farokh and Mahdi, who are safe but operating under extreme danger.
Give to Help Persecuted Christians in the Middle East
Your gift provides emergency support, safe housing, and continued gospel ministry to rescue, restore, and rebuild the lives of persecuted believers inside Iran and across the entire Middle East.