At least 12 teachers have been arrested in cities across Iran in recent days

The 'Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions', which has organized recent teacher protests and covered their news, reported on Thursday, November 24, that at least 12 teachers have been arrested since Sunday. According to the council's statement, the 'process of repression and summoning of trade union activists' that began in October has intensified in recent days, and the summoning of teachers to security agencies such as the Intelligence Ministry, the IRGC Intelligence, security guards, and the security police has continued in 'all provinces active in the protests'. Last month, a number of teachers held a two-day protest in many cities, and the second round of this strike also took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 22 and 23, at school offices. The aim of these protests has been stated as a protest against the repression of trade union activists and also against the monetization of education. According to the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions, in recent days, in addition to the arrest of 12 teachers and trade union activists, at least 30 others have been summoned and interrogated, and more than 50 have received threatening messages. This trade union body reported that in North Khorasan province, five members of the board of directors of the teachers' trade union have been arrested in recent days. Mohammad Reza Ramazanzadeh, the secretary of this union who was arrested after the October protest and recently released, along with four other board members named Saeed Haqparast, Ali Forutan, Hamid Reza Rajai, and Hossein Ramazanpour, have been arrested in recent days. In Khuzestan province, two trade union activists named Pirouz Nami and Ali Kuroshat have been arrested by security agencies, and 'security forces, after accessing Mr. Nami's phone, sent a fake message about the cancellation of the protest'. According to the same report, in Shiran County, Mohammad Rabati, Ms. Vaezi, and Hassan Joohari, trade union activists, have been arrested. Mohammad Ali Zahmatkesh from Shiraz, as well as Mohammad Kord and Fatemeh Bahmani from Arak, have also been reported as other detainees. Islamic Republic officials have not yet reacted to the news of these arrests. The aims of the two-day protests have been stated as 'ensuring and guaranteeing a fair budget for the implementation of the Civil Service Management Law, eliminating discrimination against active and retired teachers, and implementing Article 30 of the Constitution, which guarantees free education'. On the first day of the recent two-day protest, trade union bodies announced on social media that teachers from hundreds of schools in various cities, including 50 cities and dozens of villages, participated in this protest. According to the teachers' trade union, the recent protest movement was particularly prominent in the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Fars, Mazandaran, Tehran, Isfahan, Ardabil, East Azerbaijan, Yazd, Gilan, Hamadan, Alborz, and Qazvin. The teachers' trade union stated that 'those who have created today's miserable situation' attempted in the days leading up to this protest 'to negatively influence the protest with a wave of summons and threats by the education security'.