The wife of the jailed spokesman of the Iranian Teachers' Union's Coordination Council says authorities continue to pressure her husband and others detained to admit to communicating with two French citizens who are also being held in Iran.
Samane Ebrahimi, Jafar Ebrahimi's wife, told Radio Farda that she met her husband in the presence of security officers on July 25 after being barred from visiting.
Jafar Ebrahimi, along with Rasul Bodaghi, Ali Akbar Baghani, and Mohammad Habibi, all teachers' union activists, were arrested by security agents on April 30, just ahead of demonstrations held in several cities on May Day, which coincided with Teachers' Day in Iran.
They were also accused of coordinating the protests with French teachers' union official Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris.
Iran has attempted to link the French nationals to the protesting Iranian teachers. The arrests were largely seen as an attempt to discredit the rallies and increase pressure on the Iranian teachers' union to stop the protests.
Iranian officials have accused them of "entering the country to sow chaos and destabilize society."
According to Samane Ebrahimi, the families of Eskandar Lotfi, Shaaban Mohammadi, and Masoud Nikkhah were also summoned by Kurdistan intelligence officers on July 25 and are being pressured.
Saleh Nikbakht, Eskandar Lotfi's lawyer, told Radio Farda that his client is being detained illegally to keep his client and other detained teachers in prison, and the extension of their detention requires a legal reason for which no reason has been given to them.
Iranian teachers -- along with workers from other sectors as well as pensioners -- have been taking to the streets across the country to demand better pay and working conditions.
The allegations come as the security forces try to suppress anti-government protests in cities across the country against skyrocketing inflation and the government's recent decision to cut some subsidies.
UN human rights experts have previously expressed serious concern about the "violent repression" of civil society in Iran, including union members and teachers arrested for protesting low or unpaid wages and poor working conditions.
At the same time, pensioners and other groups have been protesting in recent months about the poor economic situation in the country, blaming the government for spiraling inflation, high unemployment, and failing to deliver on pledges to increase wages and improve living conditions.
The government's response to the protests has been arrests, violence, and repression of participants.
