“Teachers will not have a new year this year if their imprisoned colleagues are not freed,” say members of the teachers union’s central committee, who announced plans to celebrate Norooz [Iranian New Year] at the gates of the Evin Prison in northern Tehran, along with the families of imprisoned teachers. “Imprisoned teachers must be freed,” is the slogan of Iranian teachers all over the country.

One union activist, who was released from Evin on Saturday, said, “There were 35 of us in Ward 204 of Evin. They separated Rasoul Baddaghi from us, and released everyone else on bail on Saturday. They set a 5-million toman (equivalent to 5,600 US Dollars) bail for each one of us, and our friends freed us by providing copies of our pay stubs and identification cards.”

Rumors are flying around that other teachers are being kept at Evin’s infamous ward 209, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, or perhaps at other detention centers. No one has seen the members of the teachers union’s central committee, Mahmoud Beheshti, Akbar Baghani, Ghasghavi, Kamali and Nourallah Akbari, or heads of Iran’s Teachers Association, Ali Pour Soleiman and Mohammad Davarai. No one knows the whereabouts or the fate of these teachers.

On Saturday, seven additional women teachers were freed, though everyone thought that all of the arrested female teachers had already been released on Wednesday. Because of the sheer number of schools and their dispersion, no one knows exactly how many teachers are still in prison

Meanwhile, many families of the imprisoned teachers protested in front of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. They waited in line along with drug traffickers and drug dealers to see whether the names of their loved ones would pop up on the computer screen. None of the names had been entered into the system. Worried mothers and wives protested: “Just tell us in which prison you are keeping them and take responsibility for their arrest.” Mahmoud Beheshti’s wife and a number of other wives and mothers were taken to separate rooms upstairs, where they were told that the imprisoned teachers were being kept in Evin, but that their names had not been entered into the system yet. These words did not reduce anyone’s worries a bit.

Because of the efforts of some government officials, particularly Majlis [“Parliament”] representative Akbar Alami, the fate of the arrested teachers is expected to become clear on Monday. But the scars of these beatings and interrogations will not go away so easily. On Thursday, Majlis representatives passed a reformed version of next year’s budget bill. An article pertaining to teachers’ rights has been erased from the budget bill completely. No wonder the teachers did not believe in the promises of Majlis deputies to solve their problems last Tuesday, during their joint meeting.

from: www.roozonline.com
Esmail Sadeghi