The Islamic Consultative Assembly on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, in a virtual session, passed Articles 20 and 21 of the bill to counter the infiltration of foreign intelligence services and institutions. Under these two articles, anyone who gives unpublished official statistics and information to a "foreign agent" without authorisation will be imprisoned, and non-governmental organisations, associations and groups that breach the duties set out in this law will be dissolved.
According to Mizan news agency, which is affiliated with the judiciary, under Article 20 anyone who has access to unpublished official reports, data and statistics through their job, position or legal assignment and passes them to a foreign agent without prior permission will be sentenced to a fourth-degree prison term and permanently barred from that job. A note to the article states that if classified information is disclosed and harms national security or interests, the punishment will be imprisonment together with a fine. According to Tabnak, the article was passed with an amendment proposed by Hossein-Ali Deligani, the MP for Shahinshahr and Meymeh.
Dissolution of NGOs and associations
According to Mizan, Article 21 was passed with 206 votes in favour, 6 against and 5 abstentions out of 254 MPs present. Under this article, if non-governmental organisations, associations and groups breach the duties set out in this law, their legal entity will be dissolved under Article 22 of the Islamic Penal Code, in addition to penalties for individuals. In an amendment passed with 183 votes in favour, MPs exempted political parties, guilds and unions from this dissolution penalty and left their violations to be handled under the laws that govern them.
Background of the anti-infiltration bill
The general outline of the bill was approved by parliament in August. According to Al Jazeera, the 33-article version of the bill requires citizens to register foreign-related activities, from publishing, research and scholarships to media work, on a government portal and to obtain permission for contact with foreign media deemed "hostile". It sets prison terms of six months to several years for unauthorised contact with the media and up to 30 years in prison for spreading false information at foreign direction.
According to Al Jazeera, the president's deputy for legal affairs at the time announced the government's explicit opposition to the bill, warning that it would damage academic cooperation and the country's international image and accelerate the brain drain. Critics have called it a "law against communication". After final approval in parliament, the bill must be endorsed by the Guardian Council.
The articles were passed as the Islamic Republic's security bodies have carried out sweeping arrests in recent months on charges of links with foreign countries; among them, the Intelligence Ministry recently claimed it had arrested 31 people in Sirjan on charges of links with the United States and Israel.
Under the anti-infiltration bill, giving unpublished statistics to foreigners leads to prison and civil society groups that violate it face dissolution.
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