Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Secretary General of Iran’s Teachers Syndicate, Arrested Again
Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, secretary general of Iran’s Teachers Syndicate (Kanun-e Senfi-ye Moallemin-e Iran), was arrested by security forces at his home on Saturday, Bahman 19, and transferred to an unknown location.
The Iran Teachers Syndicate issued a statement on its Telegram channel protesting the arrest of Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, secretary general of the organization.
The statement said, “Once again, security forces, by arresting Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, secretary general of the Iran Teachers Syndicate (Tehran), have demonstrated that the judiciary and security forces are determined to make the environment for professional activities a security matter and to make professional action costly.”
The Iran Teachers Syndicate condemned Mr. Fallahi’s arrest and called for his “unconditional release.”
Previously, Mohammad Taghi Fallahi was arrested on Ordibehesht 12 in the final moments of a peaceful gathering on Iran’s Teachers Day after reading the closing resolution of the gathering, which addressed “teachers’ professional demands and their requests from the government,” along with “Rasoul Badaghi,” another member of the teachers syndicate, by plainclothes officers. He was sentenced by the court to eight months in prison and 10 lashes.
Currently, besides Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, the spokesperson, Mohammad Habibi, head of the organizational unit of the syndicate, and Ismail Abdi, a member of the board of directors of the Iran Teachers Syndicate (Tehran), are also imprisoned.
The U.S. State Department previously reported in its human rights report on the situation of Iranian teachers and cited at least three leaders of teachers’ professional organizations in Iran who are imprisoned with unjust sentences.
Source: Voice of America
