Iran: Mass Arrest of Iranian Teachers

The sign reads,"Silence !Silence !The National Media has gone to pick flowers."



Follwoing the breakdown of negotiation of Teachers Union with the government, there are reports of extensive arrests of the several leaders of Teachers Association as they were about to gather and start their protest. Some one thousand riot police have broken up and dispersed a protest rally of around 2,000 teachers who assembled Wednesday for the sixth time in two weeks outside the Iranian parliament.

During the clashes 50 teachers were reportedly arrested, among them five leaders of the independent teaching union. Three other union officials were arrested during a rally at Kermanshah in Iranian Kurdistan. The teachers are demanding pay rises and a halt to the sacking of teachers considered 'ideologically unsound'. In Iran's Kurdistan area at least 1,500 teachers have received a letter of dismissal on the accusation of fomenting ethnic hate.