An Iranian teachers’ union announces a strike this weekend against the repression of students

The union denounces the murder of a 16-year-old student during a security operation at a girls’ school in Ardebil

Oct. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Coordination Council of Teachers’ Unions of Iran has announced the beginning of a strike this coming weekend to denounce the repression of the security forces against the country’s students in the framework of the protests against the death in custody of the young Masha Amini, exemplified in the murder, they say, of a 16-year-old student during a security operation at a girls’ school in the city of Ardebil, in the northwest of the country.

As reported by the Council on its Telegram account, the young student, identified as Asra Panahi, died on October 14 after refusing to sing an official anthem after the security forces forcibly removed the students from the school so that they could participate, also against their will, in a demonstration in favor of the Iranian Government.

The Council assures that the security forces beat up the students who refused to sing the anthem, dedicated to the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The repression resulted in ten students being detained and currently unaccounted for, and another seven injured, including Panahi, who succumbed in a hospital.

Then, and in the same Telegram account, the Council proceeded to announce a two-day strike on Saturday and Sunday in protest against the deaths of Panahi and Amini, in the form of “sit-ins” and the suspension of teaching activities. “The teachers will be present in the schools but we will not give classes,” according to the message collected by the radio station Radio Farda, financed by the United States.

The NGO Iran Human Rights has denounced that at least 215 people have already died in the country, including 27 children, due to the “systematic repression” by the authorities against the protests that broke out at the end of last month over the death of Amini, under police custody at the time of her death after being detained by the Moral Police because she was wearing the wrong veil.

The Iranian authorities assure that the young woman died of heart failure derived from a previous pathology and that at no time was she attacked by the Police.