Posted by
on Sunday, March 18, 2007 12:06:27 PM
Iran is not known for its tolerance and today is no exception:The authorities in Iran have arrested up to 1,000 teachers in a brutal crackdown that signals their determination to break a pay revolt.
Riot police beat demonstrators with batons as they tried to gather outside Iran's parliament and education ministry and herded them into police vans and buses before transporting them to detention centres across Tehran.
Around 150 of those arrested in Wednesday's protest are still in custody, with the ringleaders believed to be in the capital's notorious Evin prison. Others were released after signing a commitment not to participate in "illegal" demonstrations.
The clampdown follows recent rallies outside parliament, which drew up to 10,000 demonstrators, many of whom displayed banners criticising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government as part of their campaign for higher pay. An average university-educated secondary-school teacher earns £160-180 a month, below the poverty line and much less than workers in other government sectors.
Last week, police arrested six teachers' union leaders in an unsuccessful attempt to stop a gathering that coincided with a planned women's rights demonstration.Iran riot police did this a couple weeks ago with the trade unionists that joined the teachers. This simply emphasizes the fact that the Iranians are not happy with Ahmadinejad or his reign over the nation. There has been speculation in Iran that the mullahs are not pleased with him, yet they allow him to stay. This protest, and the accompanying crackdown is just another example of the internal disent that is boiling over in Iran right now.
Now would be the ideal time to stoke those fires, and it would seem simplistic to many if we tried to help out those dissidents. The question is will we? We should. The president has decided that we should pursue a diplomatic solution to this problem, which we disagree with. We should not be talking to them at all. Iran should be isolated, as we had been doing with North Korea (again, why are we talking to them) until they collapse.
Marcie