Iranian professors threaten to suspend academic activity as salaries remain unpaid

Iranian university professors are threatening to strike and suspend academic activities if their unpaid wages are not addressed by the end of September. The Iran Academic Faculty Trade Union has given the Islamic Republic until September 22 to restore faculty salaries and make all outstanding payments. Despite legal procedures being completed and new salary orders being issued, many faculty members continue to face difficulties receiving the full increase. The union attributes these implementation delays to the Planning and Budget Organization.

A recent meeting with Iran's president and budgetary authorities aimed at resolving the dispute has not yielded any results. The union warns that neglecting the financial needs of professors will have long-term consequences for the country's higher education system and could contribute to more academics seeking opportunities abroad. Iran has already experienced a significant loss of academic leaders through emigration, also known as the "brain drain."

The issue of unpaid salaries arises amid Iran's already struggling economy, which has been further strained by the war with Israel and the United States, new sanctions, an internet shutdown imposed by the regime, and the Strait of Hormuz blockade. This economic turmoil has already led to mass protests in December, which were violently suppressed in January, resulting in an estimated 30,000 deaths according to human rights groups.

Despite these violent crackdowns, renewed demonstrations have emerged across Iran, though not at the same scale as earlier protests. Iranian jobseekers have protested in Gachsaran, Ahvaz, and Tehran, according to human rights groups. In response to the renewed unrest, Iran's judiciary chief, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, has threatened a more forceful crackdown on any further demonstrations, warning that the response would be "far more decisive than in all previous periods."