By Jila Andalib, IT Specialist & Iran Political and Human Rights Analys
Published in Hartford Courant (7/28/2025)
While global headlines fixate on Iran’s nuclear program or its regional power plays, another crisis rages just beneath the surface, the systematic oppression of Afghan refugees and ethnic minorities within Iran. In recent months alone, more than one million Afghans have been forcibly deported according to Associate Press Report on July 15, 2025. Millions more remain in limbo, undocumented, exploited, and living under constant threat. Their treatment is not an administrative oversight. It is a strategy of dehumanization. Alongside them, Iran’s own ethnic minorities, especially the Baluch, suffer institutionalized violence and neglect, abuses that did not begin with the Islamic Republic but were rooted in the era of the Shah. Read more