Over the past decade, the teachers’ movement has become an integral part of the broader workers’ movement in Iran through protests and various forms of activism. Building on Volunteer Activists first report, which analyzed the state of affairs from September 2022 to September 2023, this report examines key developments and trends from September 2023 to September 2025. The objectives of this report are threefold:

• Identify the key issues that motivated teachers to protest.
• Document the types of state suppression faced by teacher activists and present quantitative data on these practices.
• Analyze the broader societal impact of the protests and state repression, forming recommendations for the Iranian government, teacher activists, and the international community

To conduct this research, we utilized our on-the-ground contacts, interviewing various teacher activists. Additionally, we collected and analyzed secondary data from sources including reports by the Ministry of Education, human rights organizations, and pertinent newspaper articles.

Our findings indicate that teacher activism in Iran continues to face severe suppression, despite the Iranian government’s official commitment to International Labor Organization (ILO) guidelines on the right to freedom of association, as outlined in the Iranian constitution. Authorities have adopted more sophisticated tactics of oppression, moving beyond traditional judicial measures like arrests and prison sentences to more subtle yet effective disciplinary actions by educational authorities. These include job losses, unfavorable reassignments, and the denial of essential financial benefits within teacher classification schemes.

One striking example combining these dual approaches is the increasing use of ankle monitors on teachers, even within classroom settings.

Despite these challenges, teacher activism has demonstrated resilience, evolving through identifiable trends in both the protests and the state’s methods of repression. Digital and symbolic forms of activism have become more prominent and retired teachers have emerged as a central force in public demonstrations, particularly through the nationwide “Protesting Tuesdays” for public-sector pensioners. While participation from active teachers in street protests has declined, they nevertheless achieved a small gain related to the reception of bonuses. Additional findings from this report can be found in Table 1.