The thirty-first of Tir played a significant role in the past year’s activities of teacher activists. On one hand, the arrests of nearly one hundred and seventy teachers on the same day and the global reflection of the gatherings and arrests, and on the other hand, the statements of government officials and parliament representatives, each trying to blame the other. Just two days after the gathering, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, in an interview with the media, acknowledged the teacher gatherings and recognized the right to protest by the government, trying to shift the blame for the peaceful gathering of teachers onto other institutions. On the same day, the Vice President of Parliament, addressing the government, demanded accountability from government officials regarding the events of that day.

This was happening while before and after the CVK gathering, summoning of trade activists by the supervision of education and training institutions and intelligence agencies had experienced an unprecedented increase; institutions that were directly under the supervision of the government of Prudence and Hope were operating.

From here, the question arises as to what approach the Rouhani government has taken towards civil and trade activities during the past two years?

If we only look at the security encounters and detentions that have taken place in the past two years in the field of professional activities, we must definitely assess the approach of the Rouhani government as a negative and security-oriented approach; because the rate of detention and dealing with professional activists, both in the field of teaching and in the field of labor, shows a greater increase compared to the Ahmadinejad presidency (in the first term).

Despite this, many supporters of Rouhani’s government have attributed the actions taken to non-governmental entities and justify the lack of positive performance by the government in these areas due to economic problems caused by sanctions.

Even if we accompany each other with such an empathetic analysis, there are still other cases that show that the approach of the Rouhani government towards formations is dual and symbolic. In fact, on one hand, the Rouhani government is trying to show the policy of moderation as the policy of open space and cultural security in the public consciousness and in the media, but in practice, not only has it not made any real effort to open up the social and political space, but it seems that the culture of security is still in place.

We can list some cases of this approach:

Two years have passed since the beginning of the new government’s work. In the first months of the new government’s work, the Ministry of Interior spoke about the negligence of the officials of this ministry towards civil and trade activities and efforts to expand civil and non-governmental institutions. These statements drew a hopeful outlook for many trade activists, especially teacher trade unions. These institutions, which were unable to obtain permission to hold their own conferences during the eight years of the Ahmadinejad government, were hopeful that with the start of the new government, they would be able to renew their trade licenses and have the opportunity to hold internal elections and rotate and replace younger forces. However, despite two years passing since these promises, not only has the government not provided these institutions with such opportunities, but many trade activists have been forced to leave their trade activities in these unions under the threat of being deemed illegal by security institutions under the supervision of the government.

On the other hand, summoning activists, especially in the cities, by the monitoring departments of the Ministry of Education and threatening them with dismissal and pressuring them to stop their professional activities, shows another form of negative approach of the government of prudence and hope towards professional activities. The monitoring departments of the Ministry of Education are completely under the control of the government and the responsibility for such actions clearly lies with the officials of the ministry and the government. Despite the protests of professional associations against such actions, there has been no positive and significant response from accountable institutions so far.

In addition to this, attention must be paid to the disregard of the officials of the Ministry of Education and the government towards the volume of protests that took place in the past year. This is while a significant portion of the new government’s vote basket belonged to educators who voted for the Rouhani government with the hope of improving living conditions, increasing the quality of education, and opening up civil spaces.

After more than two years since June 2013, it seems that one of the most dissatisfied social groups with the new government is the community of educators. Although some minimal and symbolic efforts, such as implementing the ranking plan, are being made to reduce these protests, there is no hope for a decrease in protests due to the discriminatory gap between the salaries of teachers and other government employees.

On the other hand, confrontations with trade activists and preventing the legal activities of trade unions may lead to a short-term recession in activities, but ultimately it can lead to a more radicalization of trade spaces.