At least 23 teachers arrested; union official: We are witnessing a "peak of the use of force"
As Teacher's Day approaches in Iran, security pressure on educators' union activists has increased, and at least 23 teachers have been arrested in various parts of the country.
Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi, vice president of the Teachers' Union, stated in an interview with the Emtaed news website on Monday, May 2, that we are witnessing the peak of the use of force in dealing with educators during the era of Ebrahim Raisi, and listed the teachers' demands as "livelihood issues," "modernization of education," and the cessation of ideological education.
According to Mr. Beheshti, after trying methods such as letter writing and being ignored, teachers have turned 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 "Iranian Teachers' Union Channel" report on Monday, May 12, Fatemeh Bahmani was arrested in Arak, Safar Ramezani and Dr. Asadi in Langrud, Salah Sorkhi in Saqqez, Mansoureh Erfanian in Mashhad, Ali Haji and Latif Rozikhah in Jolfa, Dr. Mahmoudi in Aligudarz, Reza Moslemmi in Hamedan, Mohammad Khajeh and Yousef Sayadi, Hamid Khojasteh, Ardeshir Sayadi, Fereydoun Shafiei, Mahmoud Malaki, Mohsen Omrani and Dr. Amanifar in Bushehr, Shaaban Mohammadi, Masoud Nikkhah, and Eskandar (Soran) Lotfi in Marivan, as well as Ali Akbar Baghani, Rasoul Badaghi, Mohammad Habibi, and Jafar Ebrahimi in Tehran.
The arrest of some of these union activists was accompanied by raids on their homes at dawn and the seizure of their personal belongings.
According to the latest reports from Jolfa, Ali Haji was released on Monday, but Latif Rozikhah was transferred to prison.
According to information received by Voice of America, the wave of arrests of teachers also reached Kerman, and three members of the Teachers' Union were arrested by security agencies and taken to an unknown location.
According to this report, the names of those arrested are teachers Hossein Rashidi and Majid Naderi, as well as Mohammad Reza Behzadpour, the philosophy secretary and head of the philosophy department at Jiroft schools.
The Coordination Council of Iranian Educators' Unions has also reported that in addition to the arrest of Salah Sorkhy on May 10, the case of nine union activists in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was sent to the Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office.
The identities of these individuals have been announced as two women named Avat Razavi and Leila Enayatzadeh, and seven men named Taher Hamedi, Taher Ghaderzadeh, Amanj Amini, Aziz Marzi, Ahmad Ghaderi, Khaled Abdullahi, and Suleiman Abdi.
The widespread arrest of teachers by security agencies took place on Sunday, May 1, after a public call for teachers to hold rallies on Labor Day. In addition, it has been reported that "dozens of teachers" have also been summoned to security authorities in various regions of Iran.
Also, during the Sunday rally in Mashhad, Hadi Sadeghzadeh, a retired teacher and father of a student with the last name "Montazeri", was arrested after reading the final statement of the rally.
Source: Voice of America
