Islamic Republic regime has declared war on teacher unionists

Teacher trade union activists struggling for fair pay, decent conditions of service, and quality education provision have long been targets of arrest and imprisonment in Iran. 

Despite the empty platitudes and promises made by the Pezeshkian government to stop unlawful rulings and sentences against the country’s teachers, we have borne witness to not only the continuation of flawed cases dating from the [previous] Raisi administration’s time, but also the lodging and pursual of new cases – and even an uptick in such prosecutions, as well as their becoming more widespread with every passing day.

It has been reported that on Monday 3 March 2024, Ms. Arezoo Jalilzadeh, a teacher in Sardasht, West Azarbaijan province [northwestern Iran], was arrested without a court order and taken to a detention centre in Urumiyeh, the provincial capital.  Ms. Jalilzadeh is the mother of a two-year-old child.  The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA) in its announcement on the continued detention of Ms. Jalilzadeh, condemned this action by the authorities, correctly identifying it as stemming from the regime’s growing fears in the face of the collapse of its legitimacy [in the eyes of the Iranian people] and the waning effectiveness of its judicial and security arms.

In a separate news report, it was announced that Ms. Turan Soleimani, another teachers’ trade union activist in Khuzestan province [southwestern Iran], was summoned to the Shush Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office.  In recent months, pressure from the regime’s security forces on trade union activists in Khuzestan has increased and, prior to this latest incident, court rulings were issued for four other trade union activists in the province: Koukab Badaghi, Siamak Sadeghi Chehrazi, Ali Koroushat, and Pirouz Nami.

We have also received details of another case, Mohsen Jari, a veteran teacher working in the education department of Khomeini Shahr, Isfahan province [central Iran], was sentenced to four months’ suspension of employment by the education ministry’s violations board for having shared a number of politically oriented posts in a friends’ private social media group.

In another report, it was announced that Ms. Lida Esmaeili, a teacher from Alborz province [adjacent to Tehran, the country’s capital], whose previous prosecution had been overturned by the Administrative Court of Justice, was sentenced to four months’ suspension of employment by the education ministry.  Ms. Esmaeili’s charge was stated as the publishing of images of a youth executed in Isfahan.

The CCITTA condemned the issuance of this unjust verdict against Ms. Esmaeili and warned the education ministry that unless it brought a halt to the wave of teacher suppression by the ministry’s violations boards over recent months, then any dialogue for managing the increasingly tense atmosphere in schools between the two sides [the union and the board/ministry] would be impossible.

In another news report, it was announced that seven members of the Sanandaj [Kordestan province, northwestern Iran] chapter of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association: Ms. Leila Zarei, Ms. Nasrin Karimi, Faisal Nouri, Salah Haji Mirzaei, Mohiuddin Reihani, Majid Karimi, and Ghias Nemati had been summoned to appear before the education ministry’s disciplinary appeals board.

CODIR has learned from trade union activists in Iran that the ruling theocratic regime, through this heavy-handed treatment and harsh sentences on teachers’ union activists, aims to make an example of them and send out a message that it simply will not tolerate any activity even resembling organised opposition in the country.  “The regime is clearly in the throes of losing control and is increasingly anxious to stem the growing tide of popular opposition to its rule,” stated Jamshid Ahmadi, Assistant General Secretary of CODIR.

CODIR has called for protest letters to be sent to the Embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London as well as in other capitals across Europe and North America.

Please get in touch with CODIR for the contact details of the Islamic Republic regime’s consulates and embassies.

Issued: Tuesday 25 March 2025