While anti-government protests and strikes by merchants continues in Iran, teachers held a nationwide protest against their low salaries and systematic discrimination.

The teachers held a gathering in Karaj, near the capital Tehran on Thursday and chanted slogans against the government, and called for the release of their colleagues arrested in previous rounds of protests. 

More than 20 people were reportedly arrested on the eve of the protests in Kurdish majority provinces in western Iran.

In Tehran, sporadic protest rallies were reported but security forces and special units were present in front of the parliament building in large numbers to prevent the demonstrations. 

The situation was the same in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, where security forces cordoned off the areas where a gathering were planned.

Numerous pictures of teachers' gatherings in the cities of Sari, Zanjan, Shahrekord, Ardabil, Khorramabad, Malayer, Marivan, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Andimeshk, Hamedan, Kashmar, and Bandar Abbas have been published in social media.

Teachers have been holding frequent protests for nearly a year, but the political situation in Iran has worsened in recent months, with rising food prices and a growing perception of government inefficiency and corruption.

Four years of deep economic crisis in Iran following the introduction of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 has led to a sharp increase in living costs and labor unrest.

People from different walks of life, including nurses, firefighters, and even judiciary department employees and prison guards, have held protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.