Teachers’ Protest Gatherings in Various Iranian Cities

A group of teachers gathered on Thursday in front of education offices in various cities across Iran.

According to reports from some teachers’ professional organizations and images shared on social media, teachers gathered today in the cities of Ardabil, Urmia, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Marivan, and Mashhad.

Demands for the release of imprisoned teachers, improvement of living conditions, the right to education in mother tongue, an end to privatization in education, and free education were among the slogans and demands raised by teachers at this gathering.

Mohammad Habibi, Mahmoud Beheshti Langarudi, and Ismail Abdi are among the teachers’ activists who are currently imprisoned.

This is the latest in a series of professional gatherings by teachers in recent months. Various cities across Iran have witnessed teachers’ protest gatherings over the past several months.

The crackdown on protesting teachers and their arrests by security forces had previously drawn complaints from human rights and professional organizations, who had called on Iran to release these teachers from prison.

Just this past winter, a ten-and-a-half-year prison sentence and flogging for Mohammad Habibi, a teachers’ activist and member of the board of directors of the Tehran Teachers’ Association, was confirmed by an appeals court; between 40 to 50 teachers were arrested at a teachers’ professional gathering in Isfahan; and in the city of Abhar (in Zanjan Province), a teachers’ activist was arrested for speaking during a protest gathering.

Source: Voice of America