From Saturday to Monday, teachers in more than 100 locations across Iran staged three days of strikes and protests to protest the regime’s reluctance to fulfill their most basic needs.
“Teachers are fed up with discrimination”
Working and retired teachers are demanding that the “classification plan” be implemented, that retired teachers’ incomes be adjusted, that education reform be implemented, and that other basic issues be addressed.
Protests were recorded in dozens of Iranian towns on Monday, including Tehran, Yazd, Kermanshah, Ahvaz, Kerman, Qom, Babol, Shiraz, Isfahan, Rasht, Qazvin, Tabriz, Arak, Sanandaj, Ardebil, Mashhad, Semnan, and others.
“Free education is the undeniable right of all students,” the teachers said, holding signs that read, “Teachers don’t belong in prison.” “Education justice, implementation of the classification bill,” “Teachers are fed up with discrimination,” “Strikes, assemblies are our undeniable right,” “Education justice, implementation of the classification bill,” “Teachers are fed up with discrimination.”
Mrs. Rajavi: This is an uprising for justice, freedom
Teachers gathering in front of the Majlis (Parliament) in Tehran were attacked by security personnel, but the teachers resisted and continued their protests.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), applauded the teachers and their demonstrations and asked students and other Iranians to join them in their just demands.
Mrs. Rajavi stated, “This is an uprising for justice, freedom, and national sovereignty against a predatory regime that has wiped out all of Iran’s wealth and assets.”
Last week, the Iranian Teachers Coordination Council called for state-wide strikes, instructing teachers to skip classes on Saturday and Sunday.
Teachers in Tehran were attacked by security personnel
“On the one hand, the government and Majlis have obstructed the full implementation of the salary adjustment plan for retired teachers, and on the other hand, they want to ruin the classification plan for working teachers with a 125 trillion rial budget in the Majlis,” the Council said in a statement.
The classification plan has only been allocated 250 trillion rials by the government. As a result, only 125 trillion rials will be allocated to teachers’ needs this year, with the remainder being deferred until the next Persian year (which begins in mid-March) and contingent on sufficient funding. The plan requires at least 500 trillion rials, according to the regime’s own specialists.
Ebrahim Raisi, the regime’s president, presented the Majlis with the financial plan for the next Persian year on Sunday. While the plan fails to meet the requirements of teachers, government employees, retirees, and millions of other Iranians, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) receives a 240 percent boost in funding. The budget of the regime’s state-run propaganda machinery has likewise been increased by 58 percent.
Iran: Third Day of Teachers’ Nationwide Uprising
Protesters chant: “The imprisoned teacher must be freed,” “Teachers, rise up to eliminate discrimination,” “Teachers, rise up and defend your rights”#Iran #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/6fZ51vKYdM— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) December 13, 2021
The Iranian leadership is literally stealing
Teachers have been protesting the regime’s indifference to their difficulties on a daily basis. For several months, the dictatorship postponed the adoption of the classification act. It has already been validated, but it only addresses a small portion of the challenges that teachers face, which is why they are returning to the streets to recover their rights. The speaker of the Majlis, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has stated that the government’s 250 trillion budget has been declared and will not be modified.
By keeping teacher salaries low, the Iranian leadership is literally stealing from the country’s teachers. In recent years, a number of instructors have committed suicide as a result of poverty and the inability to meet their fundamental necessities.
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