Ei-iE

EI deplores the detention of 11 members of the Tehran teacher association on 6 October for "celebrating World Teachers' Day".

The teacher unionists were holding a union meeting in the house of their General Secretary, Baghani, in Tehran when plain clothes policemen burst into the room and took them all away.

The place and reason for their arrest were not made known immediately.

Although nine of the teacher unionists were released the next day, General Secretary Baghani was interrogated for 11 hours and was charged with "holding an unauthorised meeting" and "celebrating World Teachers' Day". Mehdi Bohlouli was released only on 8 October, but Rezaiee is currently still in detention.

The intelligence officers insisted that teacher associations have been dissolved by the goverment and the teachers should resign from them, and the Interior Ministry did issue a ban on teacher associations back in April 2007, while in fact, teacher associations were never formally dissolved by the court.

Nevertheless, many teacher associations have been crushed by the intelligence service. Some associations try to remain active. But their union meetings are either dispersed, as was the case on 6 October, or are being supervised by officers from the intelligence service.

EI wrote to the Iranian authorities to condemn the detention of teacher unionists because of their trade union activities. World Teachers’ Day is used worldwide by teacher unions to voice demands of a social and economic nature. EI therefore requests that, in the future, the rights to the freedom of association and assembly and freedom of expression are respected in Iran and that all activities related to World Teachers' Day may be conducted without interference.

In addition, EI stressed that it remains concerned about the continued detention of the teachers Rasoul Bodaghi, Jafar Ebrahimi, Farzad Kamangar, Sajad Khaksari and Hashem Khastar. EI insists that the government withdraws all charges against them and releases them immediately.