Iranian security forces attacked peaceful teachers’ protest outside the Department of Education building in Tehran on Thursday.
The teachers and education workers were holding handwritten placards that read:
• Imprisoned teachers must be freed
• Imprisoned workers must be freed
• Your pain is our pain, people must rise up and join us
The protest was part of a larger movement following a nationwide call from teachers’ unions. Iranian teachers held protests in over 24 cities to mark Teachers Day, which is celebrated every year on May 2 in Iran, demand the basic rights, and call for the release of detained teachers.
The other cities that took part included Isfahan, Divandareh, Tabriz, Malard, Karaj, Hamedan, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Qazvin, Marivan, Urmia, Yazd, Homayounshahr, Sari, Khorrmabad, Mahabad, Mashhad, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Kurdistan, Ardebil, and Javanroud. They all gathered outside their city’s education offices.
More cities are thought to have joined since this list was prepared by the Iranian opposition group the People’s Mujahiddin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), which has been instrumental in helping organise the Iranian people’s protests against the Regime since December 2017, when the latest uprising began.
In Kermanshah, teachers and education workers could be were heard chanting “Majlis (parliament) and the government are not caring about the teachers.”
Teachers in many cities held handwritten placards with their demands or slogans on them.
In Hamadan, the placards read:
• Imprisoned teachers must be freed
• Stop privatizing schools and education
• Children must receive a free and quality education
• We demand decent pay for our work
In Malard, which is in Tehran province, teachers held posters and placards reading:
• Free education is the right of every child
• We demand salary and wages above the poverty line for teachers and pensioners.
The teachers are demanding:
• better wages
• free education
• respect for the rights of minorities
• the cancellation of several governments plans that push Iranian education workers further into poverty
• an end to temporary contracts
Over the past year, Iranian teachers, along with other workers and government employees, have held dozens of rallies to demand their rights and protest economic woes, government corruption and lack of political freedom. This includes three nationwide teachers’ strikes in October, November, and February.
The attack on these protesters comes just one day after the Iranian security forces arrested at least 35 people for taking part in peaceful protests to mark International Labour Day.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance greeted the freedom-seeking teachers who have risen for their rights and called on the people, especially students, to support the teachers and their just demands. She also called on international human rights organization and teachers’ unions across the world to condemn the Iranian regime and take urgent action for the release of the arrested and detained teachers.
Source » ncr iran