Exclusive: Influence of Education Ministry to Remove Ranking of Protesting Teachers

Voice of America has obtained a letter indicating that the Director General of Education in Khuzestan Province has requested the removal of the ranking of union activists, including Koukb Badaghi, a protesting teacher from Izeh. In this letter, which was exclusively sent to Voice of America, Masoud Heydarinejad, the Director General of Education in Khuzestan Province, asked the Administrative Justice Court to prevent the implementation of the ranking law for Ms. Badaghi, a physical education teacher in Izeh and a close friend of Mahmanir Molaei Rad, the mother of Kian Pirfalak. In this letter, sent on the third of Dey to the Judicial and Employment Affairs Deputy of the Administrative Justice Court, he cited one of the letters from the National Security Council, requesting that the ranking of teachers and teacher union activists, who he claims were 'leaders of protests' and have a history of detention and security cases, be swiftly halted. Additionally, the Administrative Justice Court, on Aban 13, 1402, in response to Koukb Badaghi's request, issued a definitive and binding ruling obliging the Ministry of Education to fully pay all ranking benefits to this teacher union activist. Ms. Badaghi was sentenced to temporary suspension from teaching due to her participation in nationwide protests last year following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police and her support for students and protesters, but she returned to her work at the beginning of the current school year with certain restrictions. Previously, the Coordinating Council of Cultural Teachers' Unions in Iran condemned what they termed 'shameless actions to obtain confession letters from cultural colleagues.' This organization pointed out that teachers who have been excluded from the ranking law have been asked to write to the Ministry of Education's evaluation board, stating that 'given that they have faced some performance issues during their service, they regret their performance and request special consideration and re-evaluation to benefit from the ranking advantages.' Earlier, the newspaper 'Etemad' reported that the Ministry of Interior, in a directive issued in 1401, mentioned 'removal of ranking' and 'downgrading' as strategies to counter the gatherings of cultural teachers. In this context, dozens of teachers excluded from the ranking plan criticized the government's 'deliberate or negligent disregard for educators' in an open letter to Ebrahim Raisi and expressed regret over the 'security perspective' of the government towards teachers' union activities.