Recourse to issuing threatening directives to prevent teachers' rallies from continuing

Mohammad Habibi, spokesman for the Iranian Teachers' Union, announced the issuance of circulars by the Ministry of Education with the aim of "creating panic" among teachers and preventing them from attending protest gatherings.

Mr. Habibi has published images of two education circulars in this regard on his Twitter account.

He criticized education officials for trying to create "fear and panic" among teachers instead of "responding to their legitimate demands."

In one of these images, the director of education in Zarrin Dasht in Fars Province explicitly asked all education directors in the city to "explain" to teachers that "attending gatherings and sit-ins in and outside the school is illegal," and that any teacher who takes such action will be referred to the board investigating administrative violations of education employees.

The circular from the director of Khorramabad's District 1 Education Department, whose image is attached to Mohammad Habibi's tweet, also states that "foreign media" have lined up to "target" the teacher rating bill.

He has ordered all education directors in his region to be "vigilant," have "complete supervision" over the forces under their control, and "persuade" their colleagues to avoid gatherings and sit-ins.

The circular also asks education administrators to report any deviation from this order to the security department "as soon as possible" and holds administrators responsible for any "negligence in providing information" in this regard.

In recent months, Iranian teachers have held rallies across the country demanding that their demands be addressed. In some of these rallies, students have also joined the teachers.

The main themes of the teachers' protest are "failure to implement equalization of retirees," "failure to fully implement rankings," "failure to fully implement Article 30 of the Constitution," and "detention of teachers and filing cases against union activists."

As protests and union gatherings have become more widespread, security and judicial clashes with teachers, workers, retirees, wage earners, and union activists have intensified.

These attacks on teachers are taking place in a situation where reports of teachers committing suicide due to poverty have been published in some cities in Iran.

Source: Radio Farda