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Iran’s teachers join escalating wave of nationwide protests

By Mahmoud Hakamian
Shahr Bank employees protesting poor living conditions Tehran, Iran May 10, 2023
Shahr Bank employees protesting poor living conditions - Tehran, Iran - May 10, 2023

Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 237th day on Wednesday following a busy day of protests by people from different of life in Iran, especially teachers in more than ten cities where they held large gatherings for their rights. Iran’s teachers are joining an escalating wave of nationwide rallies, seen also on Tuesday by retirees of the country’s telecom industry. These protests, gatherings, rallies, marches, and demonstrations are expanding despite the regime’s recent surge in executions, sending at least 67 to the gallows in less than ten days.

People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 675 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

Family members of inmates transferred to solitary confinement in preparation to be executed have gathered outside Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, in a desperate attempt to save their loved ones. Reports indicate that regime authorities executed at least eight inmates in Ghezel Hesar and Gohardasht prisons in Karaj, and a prison in Kermanshah, early Wednesday morning local time.

The family members of these victims rallied outside Ghezel Hesar Prison, began protesting the executions and clashed with the regime’s security forces. Regime security forces responded with tear gas, bird shots and using paintball rounds to target the protesting family members who were throwing stones at the security units. One of the protesting family members was beaten by the security forces using batons and is currently in critical condition at a nearby hospital.

Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi hailed the courageous families who protested the regime’s vicious executions and emphasized that the “religious fascism that rules Iran cannot escape its inevitable demise.”

“I commend the families who have protested the brutal practice of executions. Khamenei attempts to quell the people’s demand for the regime’s overthrow by resorting to a new wave of executions. The religious fascism that rules Iran cannot escape its inevitable demise. This continued shedding of blood will only further fuel the people’s uprising, and the regime’s leaders will soon face justice for their crimes. I once again urge the United Nations, the European Union, and member states to take immediate and effective action to put an end to stop executions in Iran and save the lives of prisoners who are currently on the death row. Inaction in the face of four decades of continuous crimes against humanity by the clerical regime is in stark and obvious contradiction with the very principles and foundations on which the United Nations and the European Union were established,” the NCRI President-elect highlighted.

Brave youths in Isfahan, central Iran, attacked a site of the mullahs’ so-called judiciary in response to the regime’s new surge of executions. This attack took place early Wednesday morning.

A similar attack was launched by the brave youths of Qazvin in northwest Iran as they targeted the provincial judiciary branch early Wednesday morning.

Locals in the Chitgar district of Tehran are chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Down with the IRGC!”
“Down with the dictator!”
“Down with Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Down with the child-killing regime!”

In other reports from Tehran, employees of the Shahr Bank are holding a gathering on Wednesday and protesting their poor living conditions, low paychecks, and downgraded pensions.

Around 400 local railway workers near the city of Kerman, south-central Iran, are continuing their strike for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday and protesting officials’ refusal to address their demands. Many of them have had many paychecks delayed for a long time now. These workers have also not received their New Year bonuses for several years.

Local municipality workers in Mahshahr of Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran are holding a gathering on Wednesday protesting their poor living conditions and regime officials’ refusal to address their needs and demands.

Defrauded investors of the regime’s “Maskan-e Mehr” housing project are gathering in Tehran on Wednesday protesting and demanding officials finally provide them their housing or return their stolen money.

Drivers of the Sarkas Oil Company are on strike on Wednesday, joining the nationwide strike of industrial workers across the country that has continued for over two weeks.

Retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization from across Khuzestan Province held a rally in Ahvaz on Wednesday protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, poor living conditions and officials’ refusal to address their demands.

Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions in correspondence with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.

The government has long provided many hollow promises of increasing pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.

Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.

 

Teachers in the town of Harsin in Kermanshah Province, western Iran, were holding a gathering on Tuesday and protesting their poor economic circumstances and low paychecks. Teachers in many other cities across the country were also in the streets in similar protest rallies, including Sanandaj, Ahvaz, Arak, Shush, Eslamabad-e Gharb, Kermanshah, Torbat-e Heydariyeh, Qazvin, Takestan, Jolfa, Isfahan, Rasht, Abdanan, Bojnurd, Babol, Yasuj, and Hamadan, among others.

Regime security forces in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan, attacked a peaceful gathering of local teachers. Two of the teachers in the gathering were abducted and the city has been militarized, according to local activists.

During the past few years many cities checkered across Iran have been witnessing teachers launching various rallies and protesting their hardships due to the regime’s destructive economic policies, or lack thereof. The protesting teachers have also been demanding the release of their unjustly jailed colleagues.

In other protest reports from Iran, local tile workers in Isfahan were protesting on Tuesday, demanding that officials address their ongoing dilemmas, including delayed paychecks. Workers and employees of Tehran’s renowned Behesth-e Zahra Cemetery were also holding a peaceful gathering yesterday demanding their delayed paychecks.

In Bandar Khomeini, municipality workers were protesting on Tuesday, demanding from city officials to address their issues, including low and delayed paychecks.

In Tehran, defrauded investors of the Ramak Khodro auto company held a rally on Tuesday and began protesting to demand their stolen investments returned.

Employees of the provincial office in Kermanshah, western Iran, held a protest gathering on Tuesday where they laid a symbolic empty tablecloth on the ground to indicate their low paychecks and how they’re not able to make ends meet.

Tehran University students held a sit-in on Tuesday to protest the summoning of over ten of their classmates by campus authorities as officials continue their pressures on the students’ attire.

Regime operatives launched a chemical gas attack targeting the Rezvan High School in Qom, central Iran, on Tuesday. This is the second time this school has come under such an attack, according to local activists.

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.

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