September 23, 2023
On the first day of Fall this year, the beginning of the new educational year has arrived at the time that our society is still in the heat of the revolutionary movement "Women, Life, Freedom" and affected by its achievements; Effects that can be seen more and more in schools, universities and educational centers. Students, teachers and university professors have played a prominent role in this movement along with other social forces. For this reason, they have always been exposed to the attack of the regime's repression system. The presence of students, especially girls, in the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, their all-out struggle against the compulsory hijab and standing against the regime's repression machine, was very prominent and will never be forgotten. The brutality and chemical attack on girls' schools was the revenge of the regime’s agents for this stand, which more than anything made the hideous and inhuman face of the religious tyranny and Khamenei, the brutal leader of the regime, more obvious.
From the very beginning, the Islamic Republic has tried to run the country's educational system according to its religious model, but the fact is that despite these efforts, even by distorting history and changing the educational provisions in schools and universities, it has not been successful. Granting government scholarships and allocating quotas for the regime's loyal forces in universities has not been able to lead to the "Islamization" of education and control of universities. Despite all this, Khamenei has persistently pursued the project of making universities loyal to the Vilayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) by hiring clerics and recently using regime’s eulogists as professors, while expelling prominent professors from universities.
During the past forty-four years, educational centers have always been the center of challenge between the dark thoughts of the ruling regime and the modern educational system and its scientific staff. The imposed and superstitious view of the Islamic Republic has made education in schools and universities more difficult day by day and making it more difficult to learn knowledge in schools and university environments. Forced to learn non-scientific subjects on the one hand and neglecting mental and physical safety especially for students, physical violence against them and forcing them to comply with ideological intentions have destroyed the educational environment and passion for education. Protesting teachers are repressed and imprisoned. Critical academics are dismissed and retired. Teachers' protests and strikes are attacked. Teachers' union representatives are arrested and imprisoned. Retired teachers are deprived of their minimum salaries, and despite protesting the miserable situation of themselves and their families, their demands are ignored. Instead of modernizing the country's education, providing the comfort of the education staff, who are generally forced to have second job for a minimum living, the Islamic Republic spends the majority of the country's budget on its ideological and parasitic religious apparatus and the expansion of repressive forces. The Ministry of Education is the third largest ministry in the country, but it has the lowest annual budget.
Education has become more class-based during the rule of the Islamic Republic. A large number of people live in absolute poverty and cannot afford their children's education. The gap between poverty and wealth has reached catastrophic proportions. To the same extent, due to the destructive policies of the Islamic Republic, the educational facilities are more limited, public schools are poorer in every aspect, and special and private schools for a limited percentage of those in power have increased. While for the majority of people, children's education is a heavy burden on the family, special schools are particularly prosperous. As a result, dropping out of school and education at a young age has become a normal and increasing phenomenon in our country, and working children can be seen in every corner of the country. Scavenging, peddling, etc. have taken the place of school for millions of children. A look at the statistics shows that this vicious cycle is expanding every year.
The right to education in the mother language in our country is still unresolved. This right has been recognized in international documents and treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Mother Language Act, the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, etc. Ignoring education in the mother tongue is an addition to all the general educational problems across the country, which, in addition to putting pressure on children in schools in areas with national and ethnic characteristics, results in the marginalization and destruction of existing and common languages in the country. This is one of the main reasons for the dropout of school and classes in these areas. The reactionary regime ruling the country, which has violated all the basic principles of human rights, does not even adhere to its own constitution in this field.
In addition, the Baha'is in our country are officially denied the right to study in universities and government employment, and if they try to establish private universities and schools, they will be severely dealt with, and the regime's repression apparatus will arrest them and confiscate their properties. Also, Afghan immigrants or Afghans living in Iran are not only discriminated against and deprived of basic citizenship rights, but a significant part of their children do not have the right to education even at the elementary level.
On the eve of the beginning of the educational year, thousands of students who were arrested during the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement are still in prison. Hundreds of students have also been suspended or expelled and deprived of education for false reasons, teachers' representatives including Rasul Badaghi, Ismail Abdi, Mohammad Habibi and Jafar Ebrahimi and dozens of others are in prison or facing prosecution. We declare once again that we are with all of them in the struggle for freedom, security and justice, and we send greetings to all of them. History has shown that arrest, imprisonment and torture have no effect on the will to confront the regime and to end tyranny and lawlessness, and the struggle to live in freedom and security continues despite the regime's obvious crimes against the Iranian people's revolutionary movement. At the beginning of the educational year, the memory of those who died in the country's schools in the course of confronting the imposition of Khamenei's "Salute Commander" anthem on female students will be alive.
The Left Party of Iran honors the memory of all the victims of the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement. Together with the school and university students, teachers and university professors of the country, our party is working to free the school and the educational system from the control of the ruling totalitarian ideology and to free the teachers and all the freedom fighters from prison. We are against the policies imposed by the Islamic Republic on education in the country's schools and universities and all forms of oppression and national and ethnic discrimination, and we want to bring down the regime of the Islamic Republic of discrimination. We believe that the country's educational centers are the forerunners of the fight against the discriminatory system, and we hope that in the new academic year, cognizant students will successfully carry forward the great responsibility of fighting against the force and discrimination of the oppressive institutions of the Islamic Republic on the basis of public mobilization.
Political-Executive Board of the Left Party of Iran
September 23, 2023
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