Security forces attacked a peaceful a Thursday protest gathering of teachers held outside the ministry of education in the central city of Isfahan.
Iran’s Free Labor Union (FLU) reported on Thursday the state security forces fired tear gas and pepper spray into a rally of teachers protesting low wages, poor living conditions and skyrocketing prices.
A video circulated on social media shows the aftermath of tear gas used by security forces against the protesters.
Reports say police arrested dozens of protesters, though the figures are still not exact.
In another video, the state police heard threatening to fire more tear gas into the crowd of teachers holding a peaceful rally.
From the very beginning of the gathering outside the city’s Education Department, Iranian authorities had already dispatched large number of anti-riot units to the scene and stationed a variety of security forces at the pre-planned in advance.
The teachers, some retired, held their rally Thursday in Isfahan’s Hasht-e Behesht Avenue outside the regime’s Education Department. Based on a previous call, the teachers were protesting low wages, demanding the release of jailed colleagues, regulating and equalizing retirement pensions, and other demands.
Videos circulating on social media showed teachers chanting, “A nation has never seen such injustice.”
Another video shows a teacher complaining to a reporter holding a microphone from Iran’s state-run TV.
“You talk as if you don’t live in this society. You ask me to talk about my financial condition. Don’t you see it? Are we living in Paris?” the teacher asked sarcastically.
“We are part of a society where 90% of the people live under the line of poverty. Now you want me to talk about my condition? You’re show is a farce,” the angry teacher added.
Teachers groups have frequently held protests in Iran in the past two years, because of low salaries and substandard schools.
Their demands including an increase in wages and an improvement in their livelihood conditions and insurance, and the release of detained teachers, have yet to be met.
