Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Secretary General of the Iranian Teachers' Union, Arrested Again

Mohammad Taqi Fallahi, Secretary General of the Iranian Teachers' Union, was arrested by security forces at his home on Saturday, February 9, and taken to an unknown location.

The Iranian Teachers' Union issued a statement on its Telegram channel protesting the arrest of Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, the union's secretary general.

The statement states that "once again, by arresting Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Secretary General of the Iranian Teachers' Union (Tehran), security forces have shown that the judiciary and security forces are determined to make the atmosphere of union activity unsafe and union action costly."

The Iranian Teachers' Union has continued to condemn Mr. Fallahi's arrest and called for his "unconditional release."

Previously, on May 12, during the final minutes of a peaceful gathering on Iran's Teachers' Day, Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, along with Rasoul Badaghi, another member of the Teachers' Union, were arrested by plainclothes officers and sentenced to eight months in prison and 10 lashes by the court after reading the final resolution of the gathering, which was about "teachers' union demands and their demands from the government."

Currently, in addition to Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi, the spokesperson, Mohammad Habibi, the head of the organization unit of this association, and Esmaeil Abdi, a member of the board of directors of the Teachers' Association of Iran (Tehran), are also in prison.

The US State Department previously wrote about the situation of Iranian teachers in its human rights report and mentioned at least three leaders of teachers' unions in Iran who are in prison with unjust sentences.

Source: Voice of America