Teachers’ Association Expresses Concern Over Escalating Violence in Iran
The Teachers’ Professional Association, in a statement condemning the bloody suppression of recent protests, has expressed its concerns regarding the escalation of violence in Iran and the deepening of class divisions.
The Teachers’ Association released a statement regarding nationwide protests in Iran and their severe suppression by police and security forces. This statement begins with Ahmad Shamlou’s poem “Nocturne”: “We stand outside of time, with the sharp blade of bitterness in our ribs…”
In continuation, this professional body, while referring to “the ineffectiveness of the political structure, stubbornness in continuing wrong economic policies, and inability to combat systematic economic corruption” in Iran, stated: “At the highest levels of decision-making, the most obvious principles of social and economic management and explicit laws are easily trampled upon without reflection on their near and distant consequences.”
Furthermore, according to this association, a minority in society has monopolized the country’s political and economic levers and “by creating a closed cycle of—admittedly incompetent—managers, is attempting to preserve its current position through authoritarian and exclusionary methods.”
In contrast, “the majority, according to official statistics, has witnessed themselves becoming increasingly impoverished under the burden of a crushing inflation rate (averaging over 42 percent), which is the direct result of incorrect domestic and foreign policies and primarily benefits the two highest income deciles of society, as well as the deepening of existing class divisions in society.”
“History’s Bitter Mockery”
The Teachers’ Professional Association, while describing problems such as “poor economic conditions, corruption resulting from wealth and power monopoly, discrimination, and widespread injustices,” writes: “The bitter irony of history lies in the fact that at the forefront of such protests stand, on one hand, the most deprived sections of society, whom the 1979 revolution was supposed to empower, and on the other hand, the most conscious social strata who were expected to be freed of every constraint that hinders their free thought and action with the fall of the monarchical regime.”
The statement continues by referring to recent protests, protests that began due to fuel rationing and sudden price increases, but according to this civil organization’s activists: “It was a spark that ignited the long-smoldering fire of anger of the masses of citizens who, as a result of misguided economic decisions, fall increasingly behind in meeting their most basic vital needs.”
The Teachers’ Professional Association, “while strongly condemning the violence used in suppressing protesters,” has expressed concerns about the extreme promotion of violence in society.
The association, which has consistently pursued teachers’ rights, listed some of its peaceful initiatives to improve teachers’ conditions and emphasized that the result of these efforts has been “the imprisonment of several teachers” and the dismissal of many of their colleagues.
This professional body has also addressed the fruitless legal pursuits of retirees and “the forceful treatment of security forces toward their peaceful and civil gatherings,” as well as “the curtailment of the rights of workers, students, child labor advocates, nurses, lawyers supporting these groups, intellectuals and writers, environmental activists, and women’s rights activists.”
The Teachers’ Professional Association concluded by stating the warning that “no political regime has ever endured through the exercise of persistent violence,” listing a series of its concerns, including regarding “children who, under the pressure of inflation-induced economic hardship, are added to the ranks of child laborers instead of pursuing education,” and emphasized: “As a civil organization, we consider it our human, social, and educational responsibility to warn against the problems that have been created.”
Source: DW
