Arrest and arbitrary detention of the teachers’ rights defender Rasoul Bodaghi
On 11 December 2021, the house of human rights defender Rasoul Bodaghi was raided by security officers in Tehran, during which he was physically assaulted and arrested. During the arrest, security officers confiscated his and his wife’s communication devices. The human rights defender was also denied the right to wear appropriate clothing. The human rights defender is reportedly held in Evin 209 Ward. However, the nature of the charges against the teachers’ rights defender remains unknown until now. The family’s attempts to get his clothes and prescription glasses delivered to him have also been unsuccessful so far.
Rasoul Bodaghi is a member of the board of directors of the Iran’s Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA), Islamshahr branch, and the inspector of the association in the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations. The human rights defender had previously spent seven years in prison for his activities in organizing teachers’ protests and defending their rights.
On 11 December 2021, the house of human rights defender Rasoul Bodaghi was raided by security officers in Tehran, during which he was physically assaulted and arrested. During the arrest, security officers confiscated his and his wife’s communication devices. The human rights defender was also denied the right to wear appropriate clothing. The human rights defender is reportedly held in Evin 209 Ward. However, the nature of the charges against the teachers’ rights defender remains unknown until now. The family’s attempts to get his clothes and prescription glasses delivered to him have also been unsuccessful so far.
Rasoul Bodaghi is a member of the board of directors of the Iran’s Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA), Islamshahr branch, and the inspector of the association in the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations. The human rights defender had previously spent seven years in prison for his activities in organizing teachers’ protests and defending their rights.
The arrest of the human rights defender occurred in the context of nationwide protests by teachers, starting on 11 December 2021, on the first day of a three-day sit-in and strike. The main demands of this protest were a proper classification of teachers, the harmonization of retirees’ pensions, and other educational justice requests. Since the beginning of the new school year in September, teachers have organised several protests and rallies across Iran.
This is not the first time Rasoul Bodaghi is being persecuted for defending teachers’ rights in Iran. He was arrested on 2 September 2009, and sentenced on 4 August 2010 to six years in prison. He was also banned from social activities for five years by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court under the charges of “assembly with the intent to disrupt national security” and “propaganda against the state.” In September 2015, at the end of his jail sentence, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Rasoul Bodaghi to a further three years in jail under the charge of “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the supreme leader”. On 28 April 2016, the human rights defender was released from Evin prison.
Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned about the arbitrary detention of Rasoul Bodaghi, and believes that he is being detained as a result of his legitimate and peaceful human rights work in defence of teachers’ rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association in Iran.
