At least 122 people have been killed by security forces during the protests in Iran, including 27 children. Therefore, the Iranian teachers’ union calls for a two-day strike. The protests would continue until “the system stops killing the people and the children”.
Because of the “merciless” killing of numerous children and students by the security forces, the Iranian teachers’ union has called for a two-day strike starting next Sunday. Teachers would be “present in schools but not in class,” the Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Unions wrote on Telegram. With their appeal, the trade unionists reacted to the violent actions of the security forces, including against minors, during the protests in Iran that have been going on since mid-September after the death of Mahsa Amini.
The 22-year-old died in Tehran on September 16 after she had been arrested there by the so-called vice police on charges of not wearing her Islamic headscarf in accordance with the regulations. Activists accuse the security forces of mistreating the young woman. Her death sparked the largest nationwide protests in the Islamic Republic in years. The protests were led by young women, university students and schoolchildren, who took off their headscarves, shouted anti-government slogans and confronted the security forces on the streets.
The teachers now accused the military, security forces and plainclothes police officers of “acting violently against schools and educational centers”. “During this systematic repression, they mercilessly took the lives of a number of students and children,” the unionists wrote. It was only on October 20 that the Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Unions announced the death of 15-year-old Asra Panahi. The student died at her school in the northwestern city of Ardabil as a result of being beaten by security forces, and another student is said to be in a coma.
According to the Oslo-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights, at least 122 people have been killed by security forces during the nationwide protests – including 27 children. The UN Committee on Children’s Rights spoke of at least 23 children killed. The trade unionists backed the protest movement in Iran. The Iranian leadership should know that Iran’s teachers “do not tolerate these atrocities and tyranny”. The protests would continue until “the system stops killing the people and the children”.