Teachers' Protest Gatherings in Several Provinces of Iran

Teachers' protest gatherings were held on Tuesday, May 9, in Tehran and several provinces of Iran. These gatherings took place in front of the parliament in Tehran and in front of the education departments in various counties. According to published images and announcements from the 'Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions', the protests were held under the unified slogan 'Rebellion is boiling within me', with teachers emphasizing their demands in different cities. Protests were held in cities across the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Markazi, Isfahan, Ilam, Gilan, North Khorasan, Qazvin, Hamadan, Razavi Khorasan, and Khuzestan. The ILNA news agency briefly reported that teachers protested against 'poor living conditions, improper implementation of ranking, commodification of education, and the limitation of demands'. According to ILNA, teachers stated: 'Many of the government's promises have remained unfulfilled, and there is no will to realize them. Free education and a decent livelihood for teachers have not been achieved.' On May 9, 2023, reports indicated that security forces attacked the teachers' gathering in Sanandaj to prevent the continuation of their event. The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions also described the security atmosphere in Saqez as very heavy, stating that security forces had blocked the streets leading to the education department in that county. Nevertheless, a number of active and retired teachers held the gathering. This national teachers' council announced in another report that Atakeh Rajabi, a teacher who had been on strike since October 24 in protest against the 'government's murder of students', was dismissed and repeatedly threatened. On Tuesday, after she left her home to participate in the teachers' gathering in Mashhad, 'according to reports received, she was arrested.' The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions strongly condemned the arrest of Ms. Rajabi and the continued violent actions against teachers, calling for her release and the release of other imprisoned teachers. Currently, several teachers and teacher union activists are detained on security charges or are serving prison sentences, including Ismail Abdi, Rasoul Badaghi, Jafar Ebrahimi, Mohammad Habibi, and Hashem Khastar. At the end of the gatherings on May 9, the resolution of the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions was read, stating: 'The inability of those occupying managerial positions in the educational system, under the inefficiency of the entire executive system and the opposition of the entire government to modern thought and education, has eliminated hope for even the slightest positive change.' The council emphasized that it will continue to pursue the accumulated demands of teachers, both active and retired, and the rights of students 'through all possible and civil means as in the past.' In this resolution, the main livelihood demands of teachers were announced as 'the precise implementation of the Civil Service Management Law for active and retired teachers, the precise implementation of teacher ranking according to the initial resolution, the return to the implementation of Article 30 of the Constitution, ensuring quality education and the security of schools, especially for female students, and the unconditional release of all imprisoned activists.' The council wrote in another part of the resolution: 'Without a critical and deep reconsideration of the ideological foundations of the ruling ideology, without a critical and deep rethinking of governance methods and school administration, without freeing the school and educational system from the grip of the ruling totalitarian ideology, without accepting individual, cultural, and social differences among students, without eliminating the severe centralization present in the educational system, and without fundamental changes in the existing and failed mechanisms of school administration, the goal of the educational system will not be to educate citizens but to train soldiers aligned with the narrow-minded ideological impositions of the totalitarians.' The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Unions emphasized that 'the institution of school requires understanding of human beings. Understanding that students have different social and cultural backgrounds, preferences and learning styles, multiple intelligences, and various life paths and interests and needs. Ignoring these cultural and individual differences and forcibly fitting all students into homogeneous molds not only destroys students' motivation and desire to learn but also drives them to actively resist the curriculum.' This national teachers' organization, referring to students' participation in protests in recent months in schools and streets, deemed it 'a complete failure of a model' that 'indifferently attempts to realize its unrealistic ideals in the educational system, ignoring profound changes in the realm of social realities.' Reports circulating on social media indicate a strike and protest gathering by tile workers in Isfahan in response to their unresolved issues. They symbolically protested by laying out a lunch spread with bread and stones. Workers of the Imam Port municipality also went on strike and held a protest gathering in response to unmet demands and overdue payments. The Free Union of Iranian Workers also reported on a protest gathering by workers of Behesht Zahra in Tehran regarding their unmet demands. Additionally, based on a video circulated on social media, employees of the Kermanshah governorate protested their living conditions by laying out an empty spread. Security forces attacked the gathering of teachers and retired educators in Tehran. Several detained teachers and labor activists were released on heavy bail. A gathering of telecommunications retirees took place in 16 cities; security agents prevented the gathering in Tehran. Livelihood protests and pressure on labor activists; lawyer Davood Razavi warned about his health condition.