Iranian women get violently beaten with batons at their rally today!
** More Mass Protests in Tehran! **
– Teachers hold another mass rally in Tehran!
– Womens Rights protesters are beaten with batons by plainclothes police!
Womens Rights Activist Nasrin Afzali at one of the Womens Rights protests this week in Iran. (Kosoof)
Winston at Spirit of Man and Iranian Bazteb News are reporting that the teacher protests in Iran were held for the 5th consecutive day in central Tehran outside of Parliament!
(It looks like Bazteb took down their article.)
ADN Kronos has a report on the continuing protests in Tehran today:
All but three of the 33 Iranian women’s rights activists jailed on Sunday were freed Wednesday night, on the eve of International Women’s Day, in exchange for a pledge not to demonstrate on 8 March. Nevertheless, many of them and other women’s rights activists protested in front of parliament in Tehran on Thursday. Meanwhile also on Thursday, teachers staged their thid strike in a week in front of parliament, demanding salary raises and that thousands of colleagues they say were fired for political reasons be reinstated to their jobs.
Nevertheless just a few hours after their release some of those arrested staged a rally with some 200 women in front of parliament, to demand that the three still detained in Evin be freed and to celebrate International Women’s Day.
At least two of the women were beaten with batons…
Fatemeh Govaraee
Minoo Mortazi Langeroodi
Photos of the Iranian Womens Rights protesters from KosoofWitnesses in parliament’s Baharestan square reached on the phone by Adnkronos International (AKI) said police tried to remove the women by force, in vain. Fatemeh Govarai and Marzieh Mortazi Langharoudi, two of the 31 released from jail, were violently hit with batons by plainclothes officials.
Meanwhile on Thursday morning teachers also gathered in front of parliament in their third protest in a week demanding raises and asking that colleagues fired for political reasons, as many as 1,500 only in Kurdistan, be given their jobs back. Thousands of teachers had already gathered in front of parliament last Saturday and then on Tuesday threatening to block mid-term exams and not to resume work in rallies called by 30 teachers’ unions.
Ali Akbar Baghani, coordinator of the Association of teachers’ unions, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Wednesday that “100,000 teachers, 30,000 of whom took part in the protest in front of parliament, abtsianed from work on Tuesday” and that “teachers across the country took part in assemblies despite the threats of school authorities.”
Kamangir has much more on the women’s protest and says that police used batons and kicked the 2,000 women to get them to leave!
Previous Protest News This Week:
Iranian Women Arrested at Tehran Courthouse Protest
Thousands of Iranian Teachers Strike in Tehran (Video)
Iranian Officials Break Teeth of Prominent Womens Rights Activist
Update: Here are photos from the teacher’s protest earlier today:
An Iranian teacher holds a placard which reads: ‘Silence. Silence. The national media has gone to pick flowers’ during a rally in front of the parliament building in Tehran March 8, 2007. Iranian police clashed on Thursday with scores of rights activists who gathered in front of parliament to celebrate International Women’s Day, one of the activists said. (REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi)
Iranian teachers protest in front of the parliament building in Tehran March 8, 2007. Iranian police clashed on Thursday with scores of rights activists who gathered in front of parliament to celebrate International Women’s Day. (Reuters)
Toasted Bread has a roundup on the latest protests.
Today’s teachers’ rally was the 3rd in its kind this week and the 5th since they first staged a sit-in last month, ILNA reported. (Iranian Bazteb News)
Winston says the regime is getting nervous as the teachers protest continue and are arresting pedestrians and confiscating phones.
