Rajavi said: “The catastrophic situation of the employed and retired teachers is the product of the repressive policies of the anti-cultural regime of the mullahs, and as long as this regime is in power, it will even get worse.”
She then called on the Iranian people, particularly the youth, to join with her and express solidarity with the educators, as well as the other striking workers, like the truck drivers and the merchants.
These strikes have shown that there is no limit to the public anger against an abusive regime that has only brought them torture, execution, war, terrorism, poverty, unemployment, and corruption.
October 14 in protest to their dire livelihood conditions (including poverty), repression, security atmosphere in schools, and a refusal to grant them their rights.
The sit-in, called for by the Coordinating Council of Teachers Syndicates in Iran (CCTSI), also registers the teachers’ objection to the Iranian Regime’s violation of the right to free education for all, non-standard schools, a drop in education, low-level content of educational books, large class sizes, and the lack of funding required for education in the country.
They also called for the implementation of the Public Service Management Act, the rating plan, and the full-time teacher’s plan, as well as the release of jailed teachers.
The CCTSI said in a statement ahead of the strike: “Out-of-control inflation and climbing prices have gripped the country, and the purchasing power of teachers, like that of many other hard-working classes, has fallen significantly.
What’s more, the cost of education is on the rise, and the Iranian government and parliament have failed to answer to teachers’ faltering quality of life and the ailing education system. The time has come for us to protest this systemic disorder.”
Their protest spread across Tehran, Alborz, Isfahan, East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, Fars, Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Semnan, Qazvin, Mazandaran, Hamedan, Yazd, Markazi, Lorestan, Ilam, Bushehr, Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmed.
This is the second time that teachers have gone on strike in 2018 alone. Earlier this year, they took to the streets to protest discrimination against them by the mullahs, imprisonment of political activists and economic woes.
Iranian opposition group, the MEK wrote: “Since anti-government demonstrations erupted throughout Iran in December, strikes have become a popular way for citizens of different walks of life and social classes to protest against the corruption and inefficiency of the Iranian regime.”
