Call for Teachers’ Rally Again; Deadline Set for Release of Detained Educators
The Coordination Council of Professional Associations of Iranian Educators issued a call on Thursday for another teachers’ gathering, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all detained teachers.
In a statement released on Thursday, June 9, the council explicitly stated: “We loudly and clearly announce that if our colleagues are not swiftly and unconditionally released, and if the legitimate and legal demands of Iranian teachers are not implemented, professional protests will continue.”
The teachers’ professional council, meanwhile, has called on educators across Iran to hold protest gatherings next week, Thursday, June 26, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.
The council added that based on Article 27 of the Constitution, which states that “the holding of meetings and marches without arms is permitted, provided that they do not violate Islamic principles,” it is issuing this call.
The teachers’ professional council also announced that following nationwide teachers’ gatherings, “accusations and security-related scenarios” against teachers’ and workers’ professional activists have been added to the “set of suppression methods” of the Islamic Republic government, as a “last resort” to counter professional protests and demands.
This reference by the professional union points to the widespread detention of teachers’ professional activists during or after protest gatherings in various Iranian cities in recent weeks and months.
The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers also recently sent a letter to the International Labour Organization calling for Iran’s Board of Directors to be expelled from the organization, and announced that since June 1 of this year, many professional activists, teachers, and protesters have been detained on “baseless” charges such as “taking action against national security.”
Iranian teachers have repeatedly held peaceful protest gatherings in these years to object to their living conditions and the government’s disregard for their demands.
The incomplete passage of the teachers’ ranking plan, the failure to implement equalization of retirees’ salaries, and the “continuous and systematic” suppression of professional activists, particularly, have been among the main axes of teachers’ protests over the past year.
In its statement today, the Professional Association of Educators asked government officials and parliamentarians: “Was the ranking not turned into law in parliament? Was it not supposed to be implemented from September 22, 2021? Was the deadline for its implementation not ultimately June 8?”
The professional union asked official authorities: “Why, in light of rampant inflation increases, have you shirked from implementing it [the ranking]?”
Increasing inflation and economic pressures and low wages in Iran have caused not only teachers, but also workers, employees, and retirees to take to the streets to voice their demands.
The response of Islamic Republic officials to these protests has been suppression rather than addressing them, and even the Leader of the Islamic Republic has claimed that the “enemy” has its eyes on these professional protests.
Source: Radio Farda
