Arrest of at Least 23 Teachers; Labor Union Official: We Witness ‘Peak Use of Coercive Force’
As Teachers’ Day approaches in Iran, security pressures on teacher union activists have intensified, with at least 23 teachers arrested in various parts of the country.
Mahmoud Bahmati Langaroudi, Vice President of the Teachers’ Labor Union, said in an interview with Emtedad news website on Monday, Ordibehesht 12, that we are witnessing the peak use of coercive force in dealing with educators during Ibrahim Raisi’s period, listing teachers’ demands including “livelihood issues,” “modernization of education,” and stopping ideological education.
According to Bahmati, after teachers tried methods such as correspondence which were ignored, they have resorted to using other legal capacities such as “field movements and peaceful gatherings based on Article 27 of the Constitution,” to pursue their demands.
According to the report of the “Iranian Teachers’ Professional Channel” on Monday, Ordibehesht 12, Fateme Bahmani in Arak, Sefer Ramezani and Dr. Asadi in Langarud, Salah Sorkhi in Sanandaj, Mansoureh Erfaniyan in Mashhad, Ali Haji and Latif Rouzikhah in Jolfa, Dr. Mahmoudi in Aligudarz, Reza Mosallami in Hamedan, Mohammad Khajeh and Yousof Seyadi, Hamid Khajesteh, Ardeshir Seyadi, Fereydoun Shafiee, Mahmoud Malaki, Mohsen Omrani and Dr. Amanifar in Bushehr, Shaban Mohammadi, Masoud Nikhvah, and Eskandar (Suran) Lotfi in Marivan, as well as Ali-Akbar Baghani, Rasoul Badaghi, Mohammad Habibi and Jafar Ebrahimi in Tehran have been arrested.
The arrest of some of these union activists was accompanied by raids on their homes at dawn and confiscation of their personal belongings.
According to the latest reports from Jolfa, Ali Haji was released on Monday, but Latif Rouzikhah was transferred to prison.
According to information received by Voice of America, the wave of teacher arrests reached Kerman, and three members of the Teachers’ Labor Union were arrested by security agencies and taken to an unknown location.
According to this report, the names of those arrested are Hossein Rashidi and Majid Naderi, teachers, as well as Mohammad Reza Behzadpour, philosophy teacher and head of the philosophy department in Jiroft schools.
The Coordination Council of Professional Associations of Iranian Educators also reported that in addition to the arrest of Salah Sorkhi on the 10th of Ordibehesht, the files of 9 union activists in Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province were sent to the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office.
The identities of these individuals were announced as two women named Avat Rezavi, Leila Enayatzadeh, and seven men named Tahir Hamedi, Tahir Ghaderizada, Amanaj Amini, Aziz Marzi, Ahmad Qadri, Khaled Abdullah, and Soleiman Abdi.
The widespread arrest of teachers by security agencies occurred following the publication of a public call for holding teachers’ gatherings on Workers’ Day, Sunday, Ordibehesht 11, and it has also been reported that “dozens of teachers” have been summoned to security agencies in various parts of Iran.
Also, at the gathering on Sunday in Mashhad, Hadi Sadeghzadeh, a retired teacher and father of a student with the surname “Montazeri,” was arrested after reading the closing statement of the gathering.
Source: Voice of America
