Sanandaj: Judicial Case-Building and Summons of 15 Kurdish Teacher Union Activists to Branch 109 of Sanandaj Criminal Court (Second Class)

In the continuing wave of pressure and suppression targeting teacher union activists in Kurdistan, 15 Kurdish teacher union activists were summoned on Sunday, June 1, 2025, to Branch 109 of the Sanandaj Criminal Court (Second Class) on charges of “disrupting public order and peace.”

According to a source who spoke to Kurdpa, the summoned individuals include:
Mohammadreza Moradi, Salahoddin Hajimirzaei, Behzad Ghavami, Seyed Ghiyas Nemati, Reza Tahmasbi, Shahriar Naderi, Aram Ebrahimi, Sadegh Kenani, Majid Karimi, Mokhtar Asadi, Fatemeh Zandkarimi, Nasrin Karimi, Faisal Noori, Rezgar Heydari, and Kourosh Ezzati Amini.
All are teacher union activists from Sanandaj and face charges of disturbing public order.

They received official summons on June 1, 2025, requiring them to appear on June 9, 2025, to present their final defense before the court.

Previously, on March 12, 2025, the Sanandaj Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office issued an indictment requesting punitive sentences for these activists, citing their participation in the June 2022 protest gatherings.

Background and Broader Context

In a related report dated February 3, 2025, Kurdpa published a detailed exposé titled “From Stripped Rankings to Dismissals: Repression of Kurdistan Teachers + 47 Names”. The report documented a wide range of punitive actions—including revocation of ranking, suspensions, and dismissals—targeting 47 teacher union activists across the cities of Sanandaj, Saqqez, Marivan, Divandarreh, Ziviyeh, and Dehgolan. These actions were taken in the aftermath of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (“Woman, Life, Freedom”) uprising, in connection with state crackdowns on schools and teachers in Kurdistan.

On February 9, 2025, several human rights organizations released a joint statement condemning the systematic repression of teachers in Kurdistan, especially following the start of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi protests. They called for an end to these unlawful crackdowns, urged international bodies to monitor the situation, and demanded pressure on the Iranian government to respect human rights and teachers’ freedoms.

Also, on Saturday, January 27, 2025, a group of Kurdistan’s teachers published an open letter addressed to authorities and the public. The letter described the severe deterioration of educational justice, school conditions, and teachers' livelihoods. It highlighted various forms of repression faced by teachers since the beginning of 2022, including:

Arrests

Beatings

700 cases of salary deductions

47 cases of stripped professional ranking

The illegal dissolution of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union

The letter also mentioned that in 2023 and 2024, schools and education departments had become militarized, with thousands of teachers facing fabricated legal cases and dozens receiving punishments such as dismissal, suspension, forced relocation, and early retirement. The signatories described this record as a “black mark” on the Kurdistan Department of Education, provincial authorities, and national officials—who remain in power and continue to escalate the repression.