Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, August, 20, 2019—On Monday, an Iranian regime court sentenced Mohammad Taghi Falahi, the secretary general of the Tehran Teachers Union, to eight months in prison and 10 lashes on charges of disrupting the public order.
Security forces arrested Falahi on May 2 while he was participating in a demonstration by teachers and education workers on the occasion of Teachers Day. On that day, retired and working teachers and educators across Iran held peaceful protests in front of the offices of the education ministry in different cities.
The Council of Teachers Unions had previously issued a statement, asking teachers to hold rallies to pursue their demands and protest to the Iranian regime’s lack of response. Security forces cracked down on several of those demonstrations and arrested many protesters, including Falahi.
In the past years, Iranian teachers have been regularly protesting for their most basic rights, including unpaid salaries, poor work conditions, equal rights for different ethnicities and more. Retired teachers, who have spent their lives to educate the future generations of Iran, are now struggling to make ends meet as the rial, Iran’s national currency, has taken a nosedive and the regime refrains from adjusting their pension funds in accordance with the currency’s reduced value and increased inflation rates.
But like many other segments of the Iranian society, the response the teachers have received from the regime has been vague pledges, unmet promises and crackdown, arrests and torture.
