{"id":3231,"date":"2026-09-29T17:10:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:10:51","slug":"escalating-pressure-on-teachers-and-the-need-for-a-united-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/escalating-pressure-on-teachers-and-the-need-for-a-united-front\/","title":{"rendered":"Escalating Pressure on Teachers and the Need for a United Front"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The struggle of teachers in Iran for their rights continues, and the Islamic Republic\u2019s response to their demands has so far been nothing but surveillance, summonses, arrests, dismissals, and the fabrication of cases against them. But what is happening these days goes a step beyond the repression that has long been the norm. The security apparatus is no longer targeting only gatherings, statements, or street protests. Now, even the simplest and most humane form of connection among teachers ‘visiting a sick colleague’ is being treated as a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the latest incident, six teachers\u2019 union activists were arrested in Nurabad Mamasani: Shokrallah Ahmadi, Ali Safari, Rasoul Badaghi, Ghaffar Dindar, Ali-Hassan Bahamin, and Hojjat Sadat. These teachers had traveled to Mamasani solely to visit one of their colleagues, and for this very \u201ccrime,\u201d they were detained by security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammad Habibi, a well-known teachers\u2019 union activist, regards these arrests not as an isolated or exceptional incident, but as a clear sign of the intensification of the security-driven approach toward the teachers\u2019 community. He calls this situation the \u201csecuritization of human solidarity\u201d and describes it as a \u201cpoint of alarm.\u201d His question is simple, and the authorities have no answer to it other than disgrace: Why should a simple meeting between teachers be perceived as a threat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer must be sought in the very nature of the ruling establishment. A regime incapable of responding to the crises it has created fears every bond between people. Teachers who visit their colleague are seen by the security apparatus not as a few compassionate individuals, but as links in a solidarity network. A network that could turn into strikes, gatherings, and organization tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, teachers\u2019 union activities have been branded as security threats in order to obscure the substance of their demands. But what are teachers speaking about? Their livelihoods and the widespread poverty among educators, free and high-quality education, educational justice, teachers\u2019 dignity, and the right to organize and protest. All of these are fundamental and legitimate rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Securitizing these demands is a way to evade accountability for the structural crises in education: staff shortages, children dropping out of school, the deterioration and unsafe conditions of schools, and the severe decline in educational quality. A government that has commercialized education, deprived children in underprivileged areas of their right to education, and kept teachers below the poverty line is compelled to silence the voices of protesters through imprisonment because it has no answers to their demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, Nurabad Mamasani has been one of the major centers of teachers\u2019 union activity. Activists such as Shokrallah Ahmadi, Jan-Mohammad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadi, and others have repeatedly paid a heavy price for defending teachers\u2019 rights. The recent crackdown is a continuation of the same policy aimed at breaking up local networks, instilling fear among activists in smaller cities, and preventing the formation of nationwide solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The security apparatus knows very well that the strength of the teachers\u2019 movement is not confined to Tehran or a few major cities. Its strength lies in these very human connections and local networks, which remain active and influential even in small towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to these arrests, the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers\u2019 Trade Associations has declared: \u201cRepression in one city is an issue for all teachers across the country.\u201d The organization emphasizes that \u201ctrade union activity is not a crime,\u201d and that defending teachers\u2019 livelihoods and status, protesting discrimination, demanding free and high-quality education, defending students\u2019 rights, and striving to preserve independent organizations are fundamental rights that must not be met with imprisonment, dismissal, exile, or professional deprivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council has put forward four immediate demands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The immediate release of the six detained teachers; full disclosure to their families about their situation; guarantees of the right to communicate, access to a lawyer, and a fair trial; and an end to any security-related case-building against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also called for an immediate halt to crackdowns, the annulment of judicial and administrative rulings against union activists, the release of all imprisoned teachers, and recognition of the right to organize and engage in peaceful protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond these immediate demands, teachers in Iran have clear and just demands: salary increases to levels above the poverty line; effective insurance coverage; equalization of pensions and salaries between retired and active teachers; securing the livelihoods and dignity of retirees in accordance with their human dignity; free and high-quality education for all children, particularly in underprivileged areas; the standardization and improvement of school safety; access to recreational and cultural facilities for students; an end to the commercialization of education; and an end to the fabrication of cases against teachers and the securitization of their activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are not the demands of a limited professional group. They constitute a program to save public education and the future of millions of children. The hardworking teachers of Iran are honorable people with legitimate demands who deserve the broadest and most persistent support. Instead of addressing these demands, the Islamic Republic responds with imprisonment and dismissal. Yet despite all the pressure, arrests, dismissals, and professional restrictions, teachers\u2019 struggle to achieve their demands and secure the freedom of their colleagues continues unabated. The solidarity that the authorities are trying to break in Mamasani has repeatedly emerged in other cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The repression of teachers is not an issue that concerns teachers alone. The same logic that considers visiting a sick colleague a crime also criminalizes workers\u2019 strikes, retirees\u2019 gatherings, nurses\u2019 protests, and student organizations. It is the same government that keeps teachers below the poverty line, tramples on workers\u2019 wages, wears nurses down with exhausting shifts and meager pay, and turns universities into barracks. Our fate is shared, and so must be our response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call on workers in factories, mines, the oil and petrochemical industries, who have themselves experienced arrest and dismissal for striking and organizing, to stand alongside teachers and make the release of imprisoned teachers part of their own demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call on students, who are the children of these very classrooms and regard the future of education as their own, to make teachers\u2019 voices resonate across universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call on nurses and healthcare workers, who, like teachers, bear the heavy burden of a public service in ruins and, like them, struggle against discrimination and poverty, to extend a hand of solidarity to their colleagues in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call on retirees, women, drivers, farmers, and all the hardworking and oppressed sections of society to regard the repression of teachers as repression against themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let our response to the \u201csecuritization of solidarity\u201d be the expansion of that very solidarity. Every arrest must be met with a wave of support; every imprisoned teacher must have the voices of thousands behind them. The labor movement and teachers\u2019 movement in Iran, united in a single front and alongside all working people, the deprived, and the oppressed, will ultimately sweep the reactionary and anti-people regime of the Islamic Republic from Iran\u2019s political stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The struggle of teachers in Iran for their rights continues, and the Islamic Republic\u2019s response…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33,24,10,18,174,8,182],"post_badge":[50,49],"class_list":["post-3231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-quote","tag-abroad-committee-of-the-communist-party-of-iran","tag-communist-party-of-iran","tag-cpi","tag-daily-quote","tag-education","tag-komala","tag-teacher","post_badge-analysis","post_badge-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3233,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions\/3233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_badge?post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}