IRAN: Maryam Rajavi hails protesting teachers, calls on students and youth to support

NCRI - Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, hailed the noble teachers who have staged protest gatherings in cities across the country to attain their lawful rights and to protest the oppressive and criminal measures by the mullahs’ regime. She called on the nation, especially the students and their parents and the youth throughout the country to support and express solidarity with teachers.

Mrs. Rajavi said: In circumstances where the clerical regime spends most of the Iranian people’s wealth on suppression, export of terrorism, massacre of peoples in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, the bottomless and anti-patriotic nuclear projects, or funnels this wealth to the bank accounts of regime’s leaders and their families, the hardworking and noble teachers of the country that play the greatest role in building the future of Iran are living in poverty and face the most hardship in their lives.

The teachers’ protests that have been ongoing in various cities since long time, today, were held on a national scale in Tehran and many provinces, including Khorassan Razavi, Fars, Kurdistan, Khuzestan, Qazvin, Ardebil, Lorestan, Hormozgan, Yazd, Kermanshah, Alborz, Central, Bushehr, and Zanjan. They chanted, “The hardship has reached our bones, when will discrimination and injustice end?”, “Teacher has no bread, teacher has no home, teacher has debt”, “Teacher’s nobility trampled over by inflation and high prices”, and “We moan of poverty and detest poverty”.

While the budget of the revolutionary guards (IRGC) consistently increases, millions of children and teenagers are deprived of education and no budget is allocated to provide the minimum buildings needed for schooling. In the current Persian year (1393), the official budget for the military and suppressive organs and for export of terrorism is three times the budget for education with one million teachers and 13 million pupils. This is despite the fact that the actual budget for the military and suppressive organs and for export of terrorism is far beyond the official budget and billions of dollars beside the official budget is left at the disposal of the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence through Khamenei’s Office and tremendous economic provisions are provided to them with no supervision over them.

Mrs. Rajavi addressed the teachers, pupils, students and those working in the education sector throughout the country and said: The gift of the religious fascism is nothing but death, annihilation and destruction for the Iranian people and as long as this regime is in power, there will be no improvement in the livelihood of teachers, laborers and students, country’s education will get nowhere, and there will be no decline in torture and execution. Solely the overthrow of this anti-human regime and the establishment of democracy and the rule of the people will end this great catastrophe that has cast its shadow over our country and throughout the region for 35 years.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 1, 2015