– Esmail Abdi is a member of the executive board of Teachers Association of Tehran and was arrested to serve a 6 years jail term on November 9, 2016. They have now opened a new case against him and have sentenced him to 10 years in jail instead.
-Nahid Fatalian was arrested on April 14, 2020
– Mohammed Habibi, a member of the board of directors of the Teachers’ Association in Tehran, was arrested on May 10 2018. On August 5th, Mohammad Habibi was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and 74 lashes by the judicial authorities In Iran. While he was in prison, he was fired from his job as a teache and he is now in Fashafoye jail.
-Yaser Amini Azar, a teacher from Mohabad city was arrested on May 29. He has been sentenced to 8 months in jail .
-Hashem Khaster, a teacher from Mashhad city was arrested on January 15, 2020. He has been sentenced to 16 years in jail.
-Mehdi Farahi shandiz, was arrested on 2nd January 2012. He has been sentenced to 3 year in jail. They have since opened a new case against him and sentenced him to 9 years in jail.
A number of other teachers, in Mashhad and other cities, have been sentenced to jail and are in danger of being arrested and prosecuted.
Teachers call for the immediate release of all detained colleagues and immediate security for them.
The demands that teachers insist on include: wages above the poverty line, free education for all, free healthcare for all, the release of all imprisoned teachers, the prioritising of safety of schools, higher quality of education, an end to school privatisations and an end to commercialising education.
“Free Them Now” urge all international labour organisations, human rights organisations, progressive political parties, and all labour organisation and teachers’ associations to condemn the Islamic regime for the arrests, persecutions and harassments, and to demand immediate and unconditional release of the detained teachers. “Free Them Now”calls for a ban on lashing sentences in Iran.
Further to this, jailed teachers and all political prisoners in Iran are in danger of contracting corona disease in prisons, whilst hundreds of thousands of so called non-political prisoners, who are ultimately also victims of the same ruling system, are facing the risk of death in the jails due to coronavirus. We demand the release of all political prisoners and freedom of all other prisoners until the end of this crisis. Please support our demands and join us in any way you can, including the condemnation of the Islamic Republic through open protest letters and putting pressure on the International Labour Organization (ILO) to end the appeasement of the Islamic Republic. All workers, teachers and political prisoners must be released immediately and unconditionally
shahla.Daneshfar2@gmail.com
June, 2020