A Wave of Resignations of State Employees is Underway in Iran

Large numbers of Iranians who work with government and state-owned institutions have stepped down in protest over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last Friday.

Among the academics to do so was Lili Galedaran, a professor at Shiraz University of Arts, who did so in support of students’ anti-regime protests in that city. In her letter of resignation she wrote she was “injured by what has happened in Iran… I stand behind the rightful demands of the students, and openly declare that I am leaving the broken basis of my professorship, and wages stained with the blood of the youth.”

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A post shared by ليلی گله داران (@leili_galehdaran)

Ensieh Erfani, a professor of physics of Zanjan University of Basic Sciences, also resigned. “The streets are drowned in blood and our professors are silent," he wrote on Twitter. "They are humiliated, and they accept humiliation."

خانم دکتر انسیه عرفانی استاد بخش فیزیک دانشگاه تحصیلات تکمیلی علوم پایه زنجان با پیام زیر اعلام کردند که از سمت هیات علمی استعفا می‌دن.
«با سلام
دانشجوها فریاد میزنن
خیابونها غرق خون
استادهامون خفه خون
استادهامون ذلیلن
ذلت را می‌پذیرن/۱

— Mahshid (@teztezoo) September 23, 2022

A number of athletes have also stepped away from Iranian national sports teams. Taekwondo practitioner Mahsa Sadeghi wrote on Instagram: "Our of respect for the dear women of Iran and in hopes of preserving the dignity and individuality of women’s lives, I’m saying goodbye to the national team.”

Fencer Mojtaba Abedin wrote: "Every time I played for the national team, it was with all my heart, because it was and is the first and last reason for the victory of the people of the land. The people of my land are being disrespected and beaten. I consider it my duty to express my sympathy and companionship with them. I must say goodbye to the Iranian national team forever out of respect for women and my country."

Sajjad Esteki, the captain and star of Iran's national handball team, also stepped down, posting a similar message to Abdein.

The state radio presenter Marzieh Sadraei also walked away from her job. “Today at 10 o’clock, according to the Saturday routine, I should have appeared on a program,” she wrote, “but in the current conditions and given public feeling, I couldn’t find the resolve to do this.”