Criticism from Teacher Activists on Administrative, Security, and Judicial Actions Against Educators in Iran

On Saturday, October 1, Ebrahim Raisi described the role of teachers in the Islamic Republic of Iran as "very important" and referred to them as "scientific and practical models" for students. Concurrently, the protesting teachers' campaign known as the "Hundred Thousand Signatures Campaign" criticized the administrative, security, and judicial actions of the Islamic Republic against "responsible and caring teachers" in a statement marking the start of the school year. The campaign stated that some "responsible and caring teachers" have been subjected to "imprisonment, dismissal, forced retirement, exile, suspension from service, and other entirely unjust punishments" for their advocacy or criticism. The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions had previously described the issuance of "retaliatory" sentences against activist teachers as leading to the "deprivation of students from education and the stripping of their material and cultural lives." In this context, the Islamic Teachers' Association of Iran, the Iranian Teachers' Organization, and the Cultural Association of Islamic Iran issued a statement denouncing the "judicial and security actions against activist teachers, the issuance of long prison sentences, and the fabrication of cases against them in Islamic Revolutionary Courts, as well as the issuance of dismissal, forced retirement, exile, and in some cases, the cutting of salaries and removal from ranking" as one of the crises in the educational system of the Islamic Republic. Currently, several teachers and their activists are imprisoned on security charges, while others are awaiting summons to serve their sentences. Ebrahim Raisi, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasized in part of his speech at the Amir Kamandi Girls' School in the Baharestan County of Tehran Province, the "participatory role of students in building a better country." This comes at a time when, following the killing of dozens of children and teenagers during the suppression of last year's nationwide protests, opponents refer to the Islamic Republic as the "child-killing government." Nika Shakerimi, Sarina Ismailzadeh, Kian Pirfalak, Abolfazl Adinehzadeh, Sepehr Maqsoudi, Foad Nikpour, and Artin Rahmani were among the children and teenagers killed by the government's forces using batons or bullets. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported last November that at least 50 children were killed during the protests in Iran. Additionally, according to former Minister of Education Youssef Noori, some detained students last year were sent to psychotherapy centers "for behavior correction." On the other hand, following students' participation in last year's protests, predominantly girls' schools in various cities were targeted for months by suspicious attacks referred to as chemical attacks. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that while at least thirteen thousand schoolgirls were subjected to serial poisonings in Iranian schools from last winter to this spring, Iranian authorities were unable to investigate the source of these attacks for months. Meanwhile, Ali Asghar Fani, former Minister of Education, cited statistics from the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stating that the number of out-of-school children in Iran is 930,000, indicating that these individuals will form the future illiterates. According to a report from last Esfand by the Research Center of the Assembly, the "very low enrollment rate" of out-of-school children, alongside the "high number of annual dropouts," has led to an increasing trend of "school dropout" in Iran's educational system. The consequences of the increase in dropouts and the disarray of the educational system in Iran; Saeed Payandi explains that the Iranian Pensioners' Council states that educational policies have separated some children from schools, and the Fars Teachers' Trade Association reports that several thousand children have dropped out of education. The school year begins in impoverished areas; classrooms lacking desks and benches host students.