New York, NY, March 6, 2026 ... The Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Task Force on Middle East Minorities issued the following statement regarding the military conflict in Iran:
At this moment of profound uncertainty for Iran, we stand in solidarity with the Iranian people and their tireless struggle for their rights, freedom, and dignity. Iran is not the regime that has controlled it for the last 47 years. For more than two millennia, Iran was one of the world's great pluralistic civilizations. The Cyrus Cylinder, widely regarded as the first charter of human rights, proclaimed freedom for religious minorities.
The Islamic Republic, which spent almost five decades corrupting that legacy, represents a departure from tradition. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has consistently designated Iran a "Country of Particular Concern" for engaging in "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom."
Since the 1979 revolution, religious and ethnic minorities that had called Iran home for centuries were driven to the margins through executions, confiscation of property, forced emigration and systematic discrimination. The regime did not just persecute its people – it tried to erase the very pluralism that defined Iran's civilization. The "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement showed the world what the Iranian people already knew: that the values of the regime do not reflect the values of the nation.
The recent “National Revolution” that drew millions of Iranians from all walks of life to the streets brought hope but also marked one of darkest moments in Iran’s history. Over 35,000 people were murdered in streets, homes, and even hospital beds by the Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) and its paramilitary Basij militias, often using military-grade weapons.
Despite the devastating loss, Iranian people are uniting beyond their differences to fight for their shared values We express the hope that whatever emerges, Iran will once again be a home for all its people, as it was for millennia before the revolution sought to make it otherwise. The Iranian people, in their courage, their diversity and their long memory, deserve nothing less.