Teachers’ Protest Gathering – No. 4
Iranian regime acknowledges arrest of protesting teachers

In a protest on Wednesday, July 22, teachers carried placards which said: “Teacher rise up to end prejudice”, “Hungry till when?”, “Imprisoned teacher must be freed”, “Bread, home, respect”, “Ranking is a deception”, “Ministry of Education: More knowledge = less pay, less respect” and “More experience – less pay!”.
Teachers’ protest was held while the Iranian regime employed every suppressive measure and made every threat to obstruct it.
In Tehran and other cities, the suppressive forces and the intelligence elements used official and unofficial channels using telephone or visits to threaten the teachers with arrest and imprisonment if they participate in the July 22 protest. An SMS sent by Ilam’s intelligence department to a great number of residents in that city reads: “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 the infamy of extensive suppression of the teachers’ gathering, the Iranian regime dubbed it illegal. Mohamadreza Yousefi, the Political General Director of Tehran Governorate, said: “No permit has been issued for the gathering in front of the parliament and their assembly is unlawful.” Acknowledging widespread protests by various strata of the society he stated: “Similarly, last year, around 800 unlawful assemblies were held in Tehran that had no permit.” (Fars News Agency – July 22)
Suppressive measures against teachers was so extensive that the state-run ILNA News Agency wrote: On Wednesday, July 22, Iran’s security forces “obstructed” assembly of a number of teachers from “various places” of Iran in front of the Islamic Council Majlis. A number of protesting teachers were also “arrested”. This news agency added that teachers had come from several provinces, including Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Esfahan, Gilan, Mazandaran and Khorassan Razavi, to participate in the gathering in Tehran.
Parliamentarian Ali Motah’hari expressed fear about the consequences of putting down teachers’ protest: “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