Teachers’ Protest Gathering – No. 4
NCRI – Iranian teachers who held a protest gathering outside the regime’s parliament on Wednesday carried signs reading: “Hungry for how much longer?”, “Imprisoned teachers must be freed”, “Teachers rise up to end prejudice”, “Bread, Housing, Respect”, “More Education: & knowledge = less pay & less respect” and “More experience – less pay!”.
The teachers succeeded in holding the protest in Tehran and a number of cities across Iran despite the fact that the regime employed extensive repressive suppressive measures and had threatened the teachers.
The Iranian regime’s suppressive forces and agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security as well unofficial channels, threatened the teachers with arrest and imprisonment to prevent them from joining the protesting teachers.
The MOIS office in the city of Ilam sent SMS Text Messages to many residents reading: “Your disrupting behavior was noted. Repeating it would lead to legal prosecution [arrest and imprisonment].”
On July 22, suppressive forces prevented shopkeepers from standing in front of their shops and forced them to go inside.
To cover up the notoriety of extensive suppression of the teachers’ gathering, the Iranian regime dubbed it illegal. Mohamadreza Yousefi, the Political Director of Tehran Governorate, said: “No permit has been issued for the gathering in front of the parliament and their assembly is unlawful,” the state-run Fars News Agency reported.
Acknowledging widespread protests by various sectors of society, he stated: “Similarly, last year, around 800 unlawful assemblies were held in Tehran that had no permit.”
Suppressive measures against teachers was so extensive that another state-run news agency, ILNA, said that security forces “obstructed” the assembly of a number of teachers who had travelled from “various places” to assemble outside the regime’s parliament, adding that a number of protesting teachers were “arrested”. The agency said teachers had come from several provinces, including Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Esfahan, Gilan, Mazandaran and Khorassan Razavi, to participate in the gathering in Tehran.
Ali Motahari, a member of the regime’s parliament, expressed fear about the consequences of suppressing teachers’ protest. He said: “Sensitivity towards the gatherings will aggravate the matter. It is not imperative or rational to show so much sensitivity toward these gatherings.”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 22, 2015
Related:
Teachers’ demonstration – No. 1