Teachers and Other Citizens Stage Nationwide Rallies against Poison Attacks on School Students

On March 7, 2023, following mounting serial poison attacks with toxic gas on school students in dozens of schools across Iran, the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA), called for protests. In response to this call, teachers, educators, parents of poisoned students and other citizens rallied before the Ministry of Education headquarters in at least 25 cities. Also, the students held similar protests at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran and the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.

The protestors demanded maintaining security for students against the recent chemical attacks on schools. The protesting teachers also asked for teacher’s union demands including the implementation of the “Job Ranking Plan” as passed in Iran’s parliament, closing pension disparities, adjusting the pension with inflation, updating lesson plans and materials, the release of jailed teachers, and stopping the State TV’s smear campaign to divide between teachers and people.

During these protests, several teachers including Golamreza Gholami Kondazi and Mohammad-Ali Zahmatkesh in Shiraz, Baha Maleki and Rahman Abedini in Sanadaj and several students’ parents in Karaj were arrested by security forces. Maleki and Abedini are still in detention, and the rest were released after a few hours.

Moreover, according to CCITTA, security forces injured two protesting teachers with air guns in Sanandaj.

On the same day, several families of death-row prisoners gathered before Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj to demand halting executions. At present, in this prison, at least seven inmates convicted of drug-related crimes are in danger of imminent execution.

The videos below show these protests in several cities:

Gezel-Hesar Prison, Karaj, the protest of death-row prisoners’ families