Spring of freedom

Esmail Bakhshi, worker at Haft Tapeh sugarcane factory  Esmail Bakhshi, one of the spokespersons for the protesting workers of Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Agro Industrial Company in the Khuzestan province, described the horrible conditions of his incarceration in an open letter published on his Instagram page, addressed to Mahmoud Alavi, the head of the notorious Ministry of Intelligence & Security (MOIS). According to Bakhshi, during the first days of his incarceration, he was tortured to the brink of death without any reason and was beaten so violently that he couldn’t move for 72 hours. Esmail Bakhshi was arrested on November 18, 2018, by MOIS during the peaceful labor protests of the workers of Iran’s largest sugarcane factory. The workers of Haft Tapeh were protesting against months-overdue wages and problems caused by the privatization of the company. In his letter, Bakhshi describes that while beating him, his torturers also insulted him and attacked him with prof...

Protests by the teachers of Isfahan In the final week of December, the teachers of Isfahan held demonstrations in front of the offices of the education ministry in protest to their deteriorating working conditions. In the second day of the demonstrations, Iranian security forces  attacked the teachers with batons and pepper spray  to disperse them and to prevent the protests from continuing. The teachers were demanding the release of their imprisoned colleagues and improvements to their working conditions, including an increase in wages. Like many other segments of the country’s population, Iran’s teachers are faced with increasingly difficult economic conditions which stem from the corrupt policies adopted by the ruling regime. After four decades of unfulfilled promises by Iranian officials, the teachers see demonstrations and strikes as the only way they can achieve their goals. As a result, the regime’s repressive measures are becoming increasingly ineffective in ...

Security forces attacked a peaceful teachers’ gathering today in the central city of Isfahan with tear gas and pepper spray. Reports on social media indicate that as many as 40 to 50 teachers were detained in the gathering, though the figures are still not exact.    From the very beginning of the gathering outside the city’s Education Department, security forces and riot police were dispatched to the area and shot tear gas into the peaceful teachers’ gathering. Heshmat Alavi @HeshmatAlavi  ·  Dec 27, 2018 Replying to @HeshmatAlavi Dec 27 - Isfahan, central # Iran State police fire tear gas & pepper spray into a rally of teachers protesting low wages, poor living conditions & skyrocketing prices. # IranProtests Heshmat Alavi @HeshmatAlavi Dec 27 - Isfahan, central # Iran State police heard threatening to fire more tear gas into the crowd of teachers holding a peaceful rally. Source says a large numbe...

Workers of Iran National Steel Industrial Group have been on strike for the past 39 days. The Iranian regime continues to intensify a crackdown on the workers of Iran National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz who have been on strike and demonstrating for their most basic rights in the past 39 days. In the early hours of Tuesday, security forces raided several homes and violently arrested 10 more of the protesting workers. In a similar raid on the previous night, the Iranian regime’s forces had  arrested several other workers . Security forces transferred workers who have been arrested in the past 24 hours to Ahvaz’s Sheyban Prison. The General Assembly of the Ahvaz Steel Workers declared that they would not engage in any negotiations with Iranian authorities until all prisoners are released. The names of the arrested are as follows: Behzad Alikhani Ahmad Bavi Arash Mohammadpour Meysam Al-e Mahdi Seyed Mostafa Mousavi Seyed Majid Mousavi Amir Dehghan Majid Jalali H...

Iran repressive police fire at unarmed protesters Iranian suppressive state security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters at late hours of Sunday night, Oct. 29th injuring a number of them. The protesters were trying to celebrate the National Cyrus Day.  Reports indicate that there is an undeclared martial law in the city of Shiraz to prevent people having a gathering. Many Iranians on Sunday, Oct. 29 tried to travel to Pasargad, the memorial of the Cyrus The Great located on Shiraz-Isfahan Rd, to hold this National Cyrus Day, but were prevented by the suppressive state security forces. The Guards had set up dozens of roadblocks to prevent people from reaching the area. The people, therefore, decided to have this ceremony held in the city of Shiraz.