May 9: Nationwide Gatherings of Teachers and retired telecommunications employees in several cities
On the 9th of May and following the call of the Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Trade Union Organizations, teachers held protest rallies in 30cities in Iran to protest the repressions of the government and to pursue their demands. The reports so far show the teachers’ gatherings in the cities of Shush, Tehran, Sari, Aligodarz, Shahr kord, Jolfa, Takestan, Bojnord, Shosh, Sanandaj, Abdanan, Rasht, Saghez, Arak, Ardabil, Langrod, Ahvaz, Harsin, Takestan, Shiraz, Ghazvin, Hamadan, Torbat Heydaryeh, Kazron, Yasoj, Babol, Bamei, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Esfehan and Islam Abad. In Sanandaj and Shiraz the gatherings of teachers were attacked by the security forces, and teachers continued their protests by marching in the streets and chanting their demands.
In these gatherings, photos of imprisoned teachers were seen in the hands of the protesters and attracted attention, and the protesting teachers created interesting scenes of protest by holding banners with their demands written on them. On these banners were written: “End the securitization of the struggle”, “Free education is the right of Iranian children”, “The safety of female students must be ensured” (pointing to chemical attacks on girls schools) “The imprisoned teachers must be freed”, “No to the commodification of education”, “Prison is not a place for teachers”, “Unconditional freedom for teachers”, “Quality education”.
On a banner in Hamadan it was was written”We have no security. No job security, no mental security, no security to protest against embezzlement, inflation, high prices, corruption, unemployment, discrimination, livelihood, dignity, health and…”. With such banners, teachers express the main essence of their protest and their demands, and this is the voice of all people’s protest. In the gatherings of the teachers, there were also manuscripts expressing on them the demands of the teachers.
The assassination of Hossein Mehdipour, one of the protesting teachers in the Dashtestan of Sistan and Baluchistan was condemened strongly by the teachers. Other protest issues were the on-going chemical attacks on girls’ schools, arrests and summonses and the tightening of the security environment in education, also against embezzlement and theft, including the sale of some schools and embezzlement from the teachers’ reserve fund has been among the protest topics announced by teachers in these gatherings and protests.
The teachers have announced that their red line is the students and the ending of chemical attacks on schools and the safety of students and free, quality, non-ideological and non-commercial education are among the demands of the teachers.