Shia Rights Watch(SRW) presents its monthly report documenting significant human rights violations committed against Shia Muslims between April 1 and May 1, 2025.
Shia Rights Watch issues its monthly report on the most prominent human rights violations committed against Shia Muslims for the period from April 1 to May 1, 2025.
The report reviews numerous terrorist operations carried out by extremist groups against Shia Muslims, as well as acts of repression and abuse practiced against them by certain regimes and governments.
Shia Rights Watch confirms that it relied in this report on its own sources and some public sources, such as individuals and groups active in the field of freedoms and human rights spread across the countries that witnessed these violations.
SRW notes that it refrained from mentioning some violations due to the absence of conclusive evidence, despite being certain of their occurrence in some countries, emphasizing that it does not seek political or profit goals in its work, but rather aims to achieve justice and equality aspired to by human societies.
Countries Listed Alphabetically:
Afghanistan
- 04/01: Taliban authorities prevented Shia Muslims from performing Eid prayers in several Afghan cities. They forced Shia fasting individuals in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Herat to break their fast under threat. Local sources reported that Taliban leaders stormed several mosques and prevented imams from conducting Eid al-Fitr prayers for Shia Muslims, asserting that Eid was officially declared on Sunday and should not be celebrated on another day. In the Malistan area of Ghazni province, Taliban elements forced some Shia individuals to break their fast and prohibited them from fasting on Sunday. Taliban forces also stormed Imam Muhammad Taqi Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, expelled the imam and worshippers, and warned them of severe penalties if they held prayers on Monday.
- 04/14: An explosive device targeted the Sayed Khan Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, resulting in the death of a woman and injuries to three others.
Pakistan
- 04/01: Residents of Kurram District, Parachinar, continue to suffer under a siege imposed by extremist groups for several months, amid governmental failure to deliver food and medical aid.
- 04/05: A Pakistani court sentenced civil activist Engineer Syed Mumtaz Hussain Rizvi to fourteen years in prison due to his opposition and continuous protest against the deteriorating conditions faced by Shia minorities.
- 04/05: Pakistani authorities decided to forcibly deport one million Afghan refugees, the majority of whom are Shia, back to their country despite the significant threats to their safety.
- 04/07: Security forces thwarted a terrorist group’s attempt to attack residents of Dera Ismail Khan in the Takwara area.
- 04/19: Three people were killed, and more than five others were kidnapped by terrorist groups targeting a convoy of food and medical aid heading to the besieged city of Parachinar.
Bahrain
- 04/05: Security forces surrounding Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque in Diraz prevented Shia citizens from holding Friday prayers for the twenty-sixth consecutive week.
- 04/09: Authorities arrested the minor, Sayyed Hussein Al-Mousawi, from the town of Sanabis and placed him in detention.
- 04/12: Security forces continued to prevent Shia citizens from holding Friday prayers at Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque in Diraz for the twenty-seventh consecutive week.
- 04/19: The ban on Friday prayers at Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque in Diraz continued for the twenty-eighth consecutive week.
- 04/26: The prohibition of Friday prayers at Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque in Diraz persisted for the twenty-ninth consecutive week.
Syria
Note: Due to the prevalence of armed groups and the inability to confirm their political or ideological affiliations, only the term “armed groups” is used.
- 04/01: Reports emerged of Alawite women and girls being sold on social media platforms after being kidnapped from coastal areas and transported to Idlib and some Turkish border regions.
- 04/02: Armed factions raided the town of Ma’arba in Idlib countryside, predominantly Shia, conducting house raids and arresting dozens of residents.
- 04/03: Armed groups launched a campaign of raids and searches in the town of Kafr Sajna, predominantly Shia, arresting several young men.
- 04/04: The bodies of a family residing in the Al-Sabil neighborhood of Homs were found a day after their arrest by an armed faction.
- 04/11: An armed group stormed a house in the village of Al-Shniyah in Homs, killing the mother and father in front of their children.
- 04/12: Armed groups arrested and tortured brothers Ayman and Ahmed Khazama from the Khreisoun area in Baniyas countryside, leading to the death of one, while the other remains detained.
- 04/12: Armed groups stormed Al-Mustafa Mosque in Homs and seized control under threat of arms.
- 04/13: Armed groups forcibly displaced all residents of the Shia villages of Al-Aziziyah and Arza in western Hama countryside, bringing in residents from the town of Khattab to settle there. Displacement also affected the village of Tisnin and its surroundings north of Homs, in addition to other neighborhoods and villages in Homs and Damascus countryside, where residents were pressured to leave through threats, intimidation, kidnapping, and murder.
- 04/13: Residents of the Barzeh housing area protested to uncover the fate of more than fifty young men arrested without knowledge of their whereabouts.
- 04/15: An armed group killed young man Kazem Ali Badour while he was sitting in front of his shop in the Karm Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Homs.
- 04/16: An armed group stormed the shop of young man Ibrahim Barakat and killed him in the Al-Jandali neighborhood of Homs.
- 04/16: The so-called Homs City Council publicly abolished Shia neighborhoods after most residents were forcibly displaced under threat of arms.
- 04/18: Authorities in Damascus and its suburbs confiscated homes of forcibly displaced Shia residents and granted them to fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra.
- 04/19: The body of young man Ammar Al-Mohammed was found in a hospital in Homs hours after his arrest by an armed group.
- 04/19: Armed group killed Iraqi Shia citizen Haider Al-Zamili and mutilated his body in the Sayyida Zainab area.
- 04/19: Armed groups stormed several homes in the village of Al-Mukhtariya in Homs, killing young man Ali Mahmoud Al-Abdullah in front of his children and arresting several young men from neighboring homes. Among the abducted were: Allam Najib Al-Abdullah, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ali, Alaa Mohsen Samouni, Mutayyam Al-Saleh, and three of his cousins, two from the Al-Ali family, and Tarif Amin Mahrez.
- 04/21: An armed group stopped truck driver Alaa Al-Jubaili from the village of Jibreen in Latakia countryside and killed him.
- 04/22: An armed group killed four young men in the Sheikh Saeed area of Aleppo.
- 04/22: Armed groups stormed several homes in Baniyas, assaulting and humiliating residents.
- 04/23: Armed groups stormed the Al-Waleed suburb in Homs, killing three young men and injuring others.
- 04/23: An armed group kidnapped young man Iyad Aziz Issa from the village of Al-Barjan while he was returning from work near the Eidiyah junction.
- 04/24: An armed group kidnapped young man Ali Al-Salloum from the town of Masyaf, village of Al-Sawma’ah.
- 04/24: The body of teacher Mohammad Youssef Al-Qabaqli from Hama countryside was found days after his arrest by an armed group.
- 04/25: An armed group killed four young men after targeting the Alawite Council building in the Ash Al-Warour area of Damascus.
- 04/25: Armed groups in Homs committed multiple crimes, arresting and killing the following individuals: Ibrahim Qawaz, Wahib Suhail, Diyaa Haitham, Mohammad Saeed, Ali Asif, Yahya Al-Jardi, Alaa Al-Nasr, Hussein Al-Nasr, and Haitham Mohammad.
- 04/25: The body of young man Diyaa Haitham Ma’alla was found hours after his arrest in the Al-Waer neighborhood of Homs.
- 04/25: An armed group kidnapped Mrs. Haya Imad from the town of Qatana in Damascus countryside.
- 04/26: Armed groups launched raids on several homes in Homs, arresting: Ammar Darwish, Zain Darwish, Abdul Aziz Al-Radwan, Imad Aziz Wasouf, and Nawfal Ibrahim.
- 04/27: An armed group opened fire on a residence in the Al-Nazihin neighborhood of Homs, killing four members of one family, including the mother.
- 04/27: Armed groups killed young men Fares Mousa and Majd Issa from Latakia countryside.
- 04/27: An armed group kidnapped student Mira Jalal Thabet from the Tal Kalakh area while she was entering the teacher preparation institute in Homs.
- 04/28: An armed group killed young man Mohammad Ali Jadid from the Al-Ziyadiyah neighborhood of Jableh.
- 04/28: An armed group killed young man Yazan Zakaria Deeba from Tal Kalakh.
Saudi Arabia
- 04/26: Authorities executed young man Ali Abdullah Al-Rabah from the town of Al-Awamiyah in Qatif.
Iraq
- 04/12: Authorities discovered a mass grave containing the remains of more than 24 young men from the 1991 Shaaban Uprising near a village south of Kirkuk. These individuals were executed and buried alive by the Baathist regime.