Teachers Protest Across Iran; Several Teachers Arrested
The coordination council of teachers’ associations reported that several teachers were arrested during the protests across the country on Thursday, May 2.
The council reported on its Telegram channel that Rasoul Badaghi, Mohammad Fallahi, and Mojtaba Ghoreishian were arrested by the security forces.
On Iran’s Teachers’ Day, groups of teachers in Tehran, Yazd, Karaj, Ghazvin, Kermanshah, Urmia, Hamedan, and Sanandaj gathered in protest in front of the education ministry offices of their cities.
The protests were organized by the teachers’ associations across the country.
During these protests, teachers chanted “Our pain is your pain, join us people,” and “Imprisoned colleagues must be released”.
In recent years, many teachers have been arrested and persecuted.
In a statement, the coordination council of teachers’ associations has expressed the most important demands of the teachers.
The statement emphasizes that “the wages of working and retired teachers are under the poverty line by a significant amount. The government is not paying back its debt to teachers and forces a bankrupted insurance on us.”
“Removing the illegal and arbitrary obstacles in receiving a permit for general assemblies of teachers’ associations” is another issue mentioned in the statement.
The teachers’ protests are taking place one day after the workers’ protests in front of the parliament was violently attacked by the police and dozens of the participants were arrested. According to social media reports, the families of the arrested protesters have gathered in front of Evin prison today.
Amnesty International and U.S state department have condemned the arrest of workers and demanded their immediate release.
One day before the Teachers’ Day, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic told a group of teachers that “we must educate and train teachers to be teachers of religion, piety, and revolution.”