Iran Reformists Wonder About Role As Protesters Want Total Change

At least 58 schools in one-third of the country’s provinces have been attacked by unidentified gases since November 30 when the first case of poisoning among schoolgirls was reported in the religious city of Qom. Around 1,000 students have become ill with the mysteriously dispersed, unidentified fumes so far.

Qom, capital of a central province of the same name with 30 schools, Ardabil, capital of the northwestern Ardabil province with 9, and the capital Tehran with 8 schools lead the list of the most targeted cities.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations on Wednesday released a statement and urged teachers and the people of Iran to stage rallies on March 7 outside the parliament in Tehran and in front of the education department headquarters in other cities to demand urgent resolution of school attacks as well as teacher’s own problems including a wage increase for the next year that takes the factor of inflation into account.

Iranian Teachers' Trade Association, a national teachers’ union, in a statement Wednesday criticized the government for three months of denials of the attacks on girls’ schools.

“There is strong suspicion that the purpose of the attacks is quashing the Woman, Life, Freedom movement by instilling fear among girls and their families,” the statement said while demanding Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top religious figures to condemn the attacks expressly and decisively.

Iranian Teachers' Trade Association called the attacks “bioterrorism” and said expecting concrete action against perpetrators appears unrealistic given the authorities’ failure to offer concrete explanations about similar incidents, such as a spate of acid attacks in Esfahan in 2014 against women whose hijab was not deemed appropriate. Authorities never pursued religious fundamentalists who were suspected in the acid attacks.

In the past few years, the union whose members are highly critical of the regime has organized several nationwide teachers’ protests and strikes against low wages and for recognition of equal rights with other civil servants. Members, including some of the union’s leaders such as Rasoul Bodaghi, are often subjected to harassment, prosecution and imprisonment for their union activities. 

Iranian Teachers’ House, another teachers’ association, in a statement Wednesday also demanded Khamenei to be accountable for the attacks that it called “state-sponsored terrorism and said “the theory that the state is behind the terror [attacks]” would be more plausible if he did not publicly address the issue.

“Targeting girls’ schools is a malicious act against the progressive Woman, Life, Freedom slogan [of protesters]. Obviously, the leader and the security and military bodies under his command will be responsible for any incidents [that happen],” the statement said.

Iranian Teacher’s Islamic Association, Iran Teachers’ Association, and Teacher’s Society of the Islamic Iran also wrote a joint letter to Interior Minister Ahmad Vahid who was tasked with probing the incidents of poisoning in schools by President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday. The three groups also requested a permit to stage a rally outside the ministry in Tehran on Wednesday.

Opposition parties and groups often complain their requests for rally permits are always ignored by the ministry.

In an Instagram post Thursday, the office of Unicef in Tehran said schoolgirls’ poisoning could negatively impact the high education coverage among children, especially girls, achieved over the past decades and offered to provide any needed support.

In two separate reports, the UK-based website Iranwire has mentioned that "porn" videos and even "human sex with animals" were shown to female students in Tehran, Mahshahr, Esfahan and Eslamshahr.

The incidents happened as hundreds of schoolgirls - who were at the forefront of anti-regime protests - have been hospitalized in various cities since November 30 after mysterious gas poisonings at schools. This week alone saw hundreds more girls attacked in several cities.

One of the students said that regime officials told the students “if you participate in protests, the same will happen to you”.

Due to the "shock" caused by watching such graphic scenes, some of the girls had been taken for medical care.

When families objected to the twisted tactic, education ministry officials threatened that they will hand them over to the security forces.

One mother whose daughter had been subjected to the films, said: “The principal said we wanted the girls to see the results of sexual revolution."

Hamid Rasaei, a hardline member of parliament, earlier stated that the goal of the protesters is “to sleep with someone every night and graze like animals”.

The warped measures imposed on the girls reflect the threat the regime sees is posed by the young female generation, leading the protests from the streets, schools and universities.

It is the first time in recent history that women have played such a visible role in anti-regime uprisings, this most recent round triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, arrested for the inappropriate use of her hijab.

The student movement in Iran has spread nationwide and videos and images show young women cutting their hair, tearing or burning the photos of Islamic revolution founder Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and burning their headscarves.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a challenging interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, herself of Iranian origin, on Wednesday.

Amanpour conducted the interview without a hijab, in support of Mahsa Amini who died in custody after being arrested for the inappropriate wearing of her hijab. The event sparked mass protests since September, characterized by the slogan, 'woman, life, freedom' as women call for equal rights under the Islamic regime.

More than 500 civilians have since been killed in clashes with security forces with thousands more arrested.

Amanpour raised the issue of the alleged rapes of male and female prisoners at the IRGC detention center, which CNN had verified through its sources. Amir-Abdollahian claimed the reports were "biased and incorrect", stating that he cannot confirm the issue and that there are many such "baseless" claims.

The foreign minister's denial comes as videos of police officers assaulting protesting women in the streets continue to be widely published on social media.

“Women in Iran have all the necessary required freedoms within the framework of the law,” he claimed, calling CNN’s interview was “a confrontation”.

He said: “This is not the way to conduct an interview.”

The mandate was adopted in Resolution S35/1 on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Iran, especially with respect to women and children as well as minorities, in relation to the protests that began in September 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

On November 24, the Human Rights Council decided to establish an independent international fact-finding mission on Iran's deadly repression of protests, which has killed over 500 civilians, until the end of the fifty-fifth session of the Council taking place in March 2024. 

The UN mission, in particular, asked for information concerning violent crackdown on peaceful protests by security forces, including alleged arbitrary arrests and detentions, sexual and gender-based violence, excessive use of force, torture and other inhumane treatment and enforced disappearances, as well as the deaths of hundreds of peaceful protesters and thousands of arrests.

The mission is also seeking documentation on physical, psychological and sexual abuse of women and girls for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and children’s rights violations in relation to the protests, including in raids on schools, and the incarceration of children in ‘psychological centers.' 

The call also asked for information on violations of civil society and human rights activists, and reports of charges that carry the death penalty being applied to protesters for offences that are less than the most serious crimes as well as “restrictions on communications affecting landline and mobile telephone usage, including Internet shutdowns and the blocking of social media platforms”.

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According to the statement issued by the UN Human Rights Council, submissions should be sent as soon as possible, but no later than December 31, 2023, to enable the mission’s Secretariat to process the information, including any follow-up if necessary. Information and documentation can be submitted in English or Persian. 

The global outcry against the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on dissent, manifested through a wide array of human rights violations, is getting louder as the opposition forces are uniting and the world seems to be acknowledging the popular uprising. The deteriorating state of human rights in Iran, particularly unlawful executions and chemical attacks on schoolgirls, on the backdrop of worsening economic conditions, workers’ strikes, and devaluation of national currency rial has led to new moves by the international community. 

In addition to Europe mulling over designating the Revolutionary Guards – IRGC – as a terrorist organization, US lawmakers are pushing for additional sanctions on Islamic Republic’s parliament. Packed with hardliners, the body provides the legal framework for Tehran’s security forces to murder, torture, and imprison dissidents, US lawmakers say as a bipartisan coalition is pressuring the Biden administration to sanction nearly all of its members amid the government’s crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

Pushing for sanctions on 227 out of 290 members of Iran’s parliament, a group of 26 US representatives and senators from both parties said that "the Islamic Republic of Iran lacks democratic legitimacy, and the members of its parliament are not true democratic representatives of the Iranian people."

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Led by Representative Claudia Tenney (R, NY) and Senator Marco Rubio (R, Fla), the group sent a letter to the State and Treasury Departments. "We urge you to take further actions—and encourage international partners to join us -- to impose much clearer costs on the Iranian regime for the execution of protesters."

On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price expressed Washington’s unequivocal determination to hold the Islamic Republic authorities accountable for their actions, saying “we are using every authority we have at our disposal to pursue those who are responsible for the atrocious human rights abuses that the Iranian regime has perpetrated against its own people since September of last year.” 

“One point that I will take to my fellow legislators is the need to support the Iranian labor movement. Many Iranian workers are struggling under almost slave-like situations in IRGC-owned entities… and we need to support them in some way by a strike fund,” stated Weimers.

He was speaking at a press conference with Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has been touring Europe to mobilize support for Iran protests.

He further noted that “we have an opportunity to seize the assets of the IRGC abroad…to create a strike fund for Iranian workers to enable the Iranian people to put an end to this regime.”

Weimers went on to say that European leaders should invite Iranian opposition to meet with them to recognize the Iranian opposition and to recognize that there are concrete plans for a transition to a democratic free Iran.

As the protests and calls for strikes continue in Iran, Prince Reza Pahlavi has repeatedly asked the US and the West to form a fund to support the families of the workers who are on strike.

Reza Pahlavi has repeatedly emphasized that the nationwide strikes along with protests will overthrow the Islamic Republic.