At least 60 teachers have been arrested or sentenced as authorities seek to dismantle one of Iran’s most influential networks of independent civic organization.
According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, the Islamic Republic has launched a sustained and organized campaign against teachers following the bloody protests of January 2026.
Teachers constitute one of Iran’s most important and influential independent civil constituencies. Through arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of access to lawyers and medical treatment, and severe sentences involving imprisonment, flogging and internal exile, security and judicial authorities are seeking to intimidate teachers and extinguish independent union activity.
At least 60 teachers were arrested or convicted between the January protests and August 2026. The real number is believed to be considerably higher, particularly in smaller cities, where repression is less visible and more difficult to document. The prolonged internet shutdown following the protests has further obstructed the collection and verification of information.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran says the campaign against teachers forms part of a broader state strategy to eliminate independent civic voices. It has called for a meaningful international response from institutions including UNESCO, the International Labour Organization, UN special rapporteurs and teachers’ unions, as well as targeted sanctions against officials responsible for the repression.
Zamaneh spoke with Behnam Daraeizadeh, a legal scholar and senior editor of the Center for Human Rights in Iran’s Persian-language section.
Repression Is Harsher Beyond the Major Cities
Daraeizadeh began by emphasizing that the Islamic Republic’s systematic repression has consistently been more extensive and severe in smaller cities, marginalized areas and regions populated by ethnic minorities.
This applies not only to teachers and union activists, he explained, but also to journalists and media workers. Cases outside the major urban centres are generally less extensively documented and receive less media attention.
“One of the main reasons is the limited access to independent lawyers, the absence of free media, intense security pressure on families and witnesses, and a general fear of the consequences of sharing information,” Daraeizadeh said.
“In many cases, families refuse to publicize a case because security agencies have directly threatened them. The community is small, people know one another more closely, and the level of repression and restriction is more severe.”
He also pointed to the unprecedented three-month internet shutdown following the January protests. The blackout seriously disrupted documentation efforts and severed communication between local sources, media organizations and human rights groups.
Drawing on a network of local sources, detainees’ families, lawyers and union activists, CHRI has documented at least 60 cases involving the arrest or conviction of teachers. It has also subjected reports from the media and organizations such as the Human Rights Activists News Agency to several stages of verification.
“We can say with confidence that this figure represents only the minimum number of cases that could be verified,” Daraeizadeh said. “The real number, particularly in smaller cities, is far higher than what we have so far been able to document and publish.”
Solitary Confinement and Medical Neglect as Instruments of Repression
The report documents a recurring pattern of prolonged solitary confinement, denial of access to lawyers, severed communication with families and the deliberate withholding of necessary medical treatment.
According to Daraeizadeh, these practices are not isolated violations but elements of a well-established system of repression.
“These arbitrary measures are not only in clear violation of international standards and the absolute prohibition of torture; in many respects, they also have no legal basis even under the Islamic Republic’s own laws and regulations,” he said.
“If a genuine judicial mechanism existed, it would be investigating this large number of violations committed within the judicial system itself.”
The report’s findings were gathered and verified through first-hand documentation, interviews with union activists and families, informed local sources, and testimony from people who had directly experienced these conditions.
Daraeizadeh said that withholding medical treatment has become an established and persistent practice in Iranian prisons, particularly in cases involving political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and imprisoned trade unionists, including teachers.
In such cases, the denial of care is not merely the result of inadequate prison facilities. It functions as a means of punishment, coercion and pressure against detainees and their families.
What International Pressure Can—and Cannot—Do
Daraeizadeh said public expectations regarding international institutions are often based on an inaccurate understanding of both their powers and their limitations.
Many citizens, activists and even journalists ask why the United Nations or the wider international community does not intervene directly to stop repression. Such expectations are understandable, he said, but they do not correspond to the realities of international law.
At the same time, he rejected the opposite claim that international institutions possess no meaningful instruments with which to influence governments such as the Islamic Republic.
“The experience of the Islamic Republic’s four decades in power shows that sustained international pressure has, at various moments, affected the government’s conduct,” he said.
He pointed to the establishment of special UN mechanisms concerning Iran, the appointment of special rapporteurs and some changes in state behaviour during periods such as the European governments’ “critical dialogue” policy in the 1990s.
He also cited amendments to Iran’s anti-narcotics legislation, which reduced the application of the death penalty for some drug-related offences. New reports now suggest that further revisions to these deeply unjust laws may be under consideration.
The principal difficulty today, Daraeizadeh argued, is that human rights have been pushed down the international agenda by wars, security crises, geopolitical rivalries and economic interests.
“One of our most important responsibilities as a human rights organization is to place this issue back on the agenda of international institutions, governments and public opinion,” he said.
“We must remind them that they have both legal and moral responsibilities regarding widespread human rights violations in Iran. We certainly do not expect human rights to become the foremost priority of Western governments’ foreign policy toward the Islamic Republic. But we must not allow it to disappear from the agenda.”
CHRI therefore seeks to use the available mechanisms of the United Nations, UNESCO, the International Labour Organization, special rapporteurs, teachers’ unions and governments that claim to uphold human rights. The objective, Daraeizadeh said, is to increase the cost of repression for the officials responsible and to ensure that imprisoned teachers—and other victims of human rights violations in Iran—are not forgotten.
