Abolfazl Ghadiani: How come you have budget for the "corrupt" army but not for teachers?

Abolfazl Ghadiani, a political activist living in Iran, issued a statement protesting the suppression of teachers' demands and asking why the government claims it has no budget for classifying and equalizing teachers' salaries, while the "corrupt" IRGC's budget is multiplying.

This political activist, in conjunction with teacher protests in various cities in Iran and the repression of protesters in some cities, issued a statement on Sunday, May 1, saying: "Today's dictator of Iran, Ali Khamenei, his aides, his supporters, and his puppet government not only do not respond to the teachers' legitimate and legal demands, but they also do not tolerate these peaceful, non-violent, and legal gatherings."

He said that "Iran's autocrats and their oppressors" are under the illusion that with these attacks and arrests, they can dissuade teachers from their legitimate demands and force them to silence.

This political activist referred to the statements of the President and the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament about the lack of budget for ranking and equalizing teachers' salaries and raised the question: How do you have the resources to "multiply and multiply" the IRGC budget and give it to IRGC commanders "to the bone marrow," but you don't have the budget for ranking and equalizing teachers' salaries, which is considered a minimum cost basket?

Mr. Ghadiani went on to refer to the leaked audio file of the IRGC commanders and called it "a corner of structural and institutionalized corruption in the government."

This 50-minute audio file, most of which was dedicated to a confidential meeting and conversation between Mohammad Ali (Aziz) Jafari, then-Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Guards, and Sadegh (Mirza Hassan) Zolghadrnia, former Deputy for Economy and Construction of the Revolutionary Guards, in 2018 about corruption in forces related to the IRGC's Quds Force, the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, and the Tehran Municipality, was first published by Radio Farda in February of last year.

Mr. Ghadiani says that if "half the budget increase" allocated to the Revolutionary Guard Corps, or "one percent" of the assets of institutions under the supervision of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, were added to the education budget, the equalization and ranking demanded by teachers could be implemented.

Coinciding with International Workers' Day and Teachers' Day in Iran, teachers and workers held protest rallies in various cities across the country on Sunday and chanted slogans demanding justice.

According to images published on social media, teachers in the cities of Shiraz, Arak, Kermanshah, Noorabad Fars, Saqqez, and Khomeini Shahr, and dozens of other small and large cities, have gathered, and in some cities, including Marivan, Sanandaj, and Langrud, a tight security atmosphere was established with the deployment of police forces throughout the city since the early hours of the morning.

Meanwhile, gatherings in some cities turned violent due to police intervention, including when the police raided a teachers' gathering in Bushehr, beating up the demonstrators and arresting a number of them.

Mr. Ghadiani said that so far, the teachers' legitimate and legal demands have received no response other than "rhetoric and promises from the Red Army," until they were fed up with this blatant injustice and oppression and were forced to take to the streets on a large scale, repeatedly holding rallies in more than a hundred cities to protest the government's failure to respond to their demands.

Source: Radio Farda