Minister of Education: I Hope Imprisoned Colleagues Will Be Released Soon

Ali Asghar Fani, the Minister of Education of Iran, expressed hope during a press conference regarding the start of the new school year that all imprisoned teachers would be released soon. The newspaper Etemad, published in Tehran, reported that Mr. Fani referred to a meeting he had last week with the families of imprisoned teachers in Iran, stating, "A few days ago, the families of the imprisoned educators requested a meeting with me, which I accepted, and they provided reports during this meeting." The Minister of Education further added that he is following up on the families' requests and "I hope to witness the release of our colleagues coinciding with the reopening of schools." In recent weeks, reports have surfaced about the arrest and imprisonment of a group of teachers and members of their union in Iran. Notably, on September 9, Mohammad Reza Niknezhad and Mehdi Behlooli, two activist teachers in Iran, were transferred to Evin Prison. Ismail Abdi, Ali Akbar Baghaei, Rasoul Badaghi, and Alireza Hashemi, other activists in the field of teachers' rights, have been imprisoned for some time on security charges such as organizing union gatherings. On September 15, agents arrested Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, the spokesperson for the "Iranian Teachers' Union," at his home in Tehran. Mr. Beheshti Langaroudi had just a few days prior to his arrest presented a report on the issues facing Iranian teachers in a meeting with the deputy of Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran. Two days before the Minister of Education's remarks and his reference to the meeting with the families of the detained teachers in Iran, the Syndicate of Workers of the Bus Company also joined the critics of the arrests. According to this union, authorities must "reduce social tensions and concerns of the educational community by fulfilling the demands of teachers and other educators ahead of the new school year." In this context, Mahmoud Barati, a imprisoned teacher, was executed "on drug-related charges," and calls for an investigation into the reasons for the death of Shahrokh Zamani in prison continue.