NCRI Congratulates Teachers as Iran Continues to Oppress Teachers’ Union

International Teachers’ Day is meant to honor the hard work and efforts of teachers around the globe who spend their time and energy educating the next generation, often teaching them more than just how to read, write, and do math.

The Education Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a statement for International Teachers’ Day, praising the Iranian teachers’ struggle and emphasizes its decisive role in the popular struggle of the Iranian people to overthrow the anti-human clerical regime and establish democracy and freedom in Iran.

While other countries celebrated the work of their teachers, the Iranian regime has been focused on dominating their teachers, increasing the repression and suppression of these individuals who are living in poverty and dealing with a variety of pressure, both socially and economically. For teachers in Iran, caring their families involves taking on a second and third jobs, which has a profound impact on the quality of the education in the country.

The irony is that billions of dollars of Iranian people’s money is being spent on military objectives throughout the region, while exporting terrorism and the regime’s efforts to build up its missile defenses. Yet, during this same period, teachers’ salaries have been allowed to go into arrears and their pension fund has been plundered.

When the teachers attempt to protest these issues to get resolution from the regime, they end up dealing with the judiciary, which usually means charges of speaking out against the government and other trumped up crimes that end with excessive sentences. During the past year, Iranian teachers and education staff stood against repression and plunder of the regime in education system by holding close to 200 small and big protests movements.

Not only have teachers been struggling to get paid, they have also had to deal with the ignorance, superstition, and despotism, and those who suffered imprisonment in the medieval prisons of the regime for standing for freedom and defending the rights of teachers.

The NCRI calls on all teachers and education staffs to escalate their resistance against the repressive policies of the regime and against the trampling of their rights and insist on the right to have independent trade unions and to pursue their legitimate demands. Also, the NCRI is urging all the pupils, students, and the youth of Iran to support the teachers’ struggles and demands.

However, the teachers’ union has not just focused on their own challenges, but have also called for an investigation into the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. According to a spokesman for the Iranian Teachers Union, the union calls on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Asemeh Jahangir, to investigate that massacre.

“In the summer of 1988, after the defeat in the war with Iraq, the Iranian rulers under Khomeini’s leadership, who from long time ago were planning of eliminate prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, finally took advantage of the situation and executed more than 30,00 political prisoners and buried them in mass graves,” said Seyed Hashem Khastar, spokesman for the Iranian Teachers Union and a former political prisoner. “After the anti-monarchy revolution, whose main slogan was freedom, the new rulers created major crises for the Iranians under false pretexts. They intended to curtail the freedom of the people and they did not hesitate to commit any crime. They dissolved all parties and banned publications. Their excuse was to fulfill the commandments of God’s religion, Islam, while religion came for human’s wellbeing and not for the indigence and misery of people.”

Speaking out for others has brought consequences from the Iranian regime. The mullahs do not take lightly anyone or any group calling them out regarding their actions. Protesting often results in harsh consequences.

Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi, an imprisoned spokesman for the Teachers’ Association is spending a total of 14 years in prison, based on charges related to his own protesting the status of another imprisoned teacher. His son noted that all of his father’s activities have been guild related activities.

Mr. Beheshti’s son said that the charges that were repeated in the indictments against him include allegations such as “gathering and collusion against national security and propaganda against the system.”

It is clear officials of the Iranian regime use security charges to oppress political activists, journalists, and trade union activists, even as judiciary officials have repeatedly said that they do not recognize political offenses. For those who are part of Iran under the regime, the trials of the teachers’ union and guild are just one example of a larger issue of human rights violations and abuses. International activists have continued to call out Iran’s actions against trade activists and those who are protesting the violations of their basic rights and their economic well-being.