Iran: Teachers Protest the Arrest of Hashem Khastar and Education Activists

By: Hassan Mahmoudi

In a statement, Iranian teachers protest the arrest of Hashem Khastar and Education activists.

Hashem Khastar has been arrested and jailed many times over the past two decades for his civil rights acts. However, he relentlessly sought freedom. Since the past two decades, he’s been a powerful advocate for educational rights.

While a number of teachers are in jail for seeking justice, we are witnessing the new attempts of prosecution and suppression of teachers for their civil rights act by the IRGC intelligence units over the past few days.

Almost a month has passed since the illegal arrest of our colleague, Mr. Houshang Koushki, in Lorestan-Mamoulan. Moreover, the ministry of education has cut his salary.

In addition, Jawad Lal Mohammadi and Mohammad Hossein Sepehri are among the arrested education activists in Mashhad.

We, the signatories listed below, as a group of freedom-loving and justice-seeking teachers condemn the arrest and the imprisonment of our colleagues and civil activists.

We believe that sit-ins, rallies, strikes, and any form of civil protest are an indisputable right of all citizens and part of social freedoms and citizenship rights.

We demand the unconditional release of all teachers, women, workers, students and political and civil activists who have been tried and imprisoned in an unjust procedure.

We believe that if the trial is fair, many of the current inmates must be released, and thieves and corrupt officials must be imprisoned.

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