In a sunlit classroom tucked somewhere in the folds of memory, a chalkboard still bears the soft traces of lessons past. Multiplication tables. Poems in tidy handwriting. Perhaps a quote about justice.

This was Masoumeh Asgari’s world.

For decades, she taught generations of Iranian children to read, to write, to question. A retired schoolteacher and mother, Masoumeh dedicated her life to education—not just as a profession, but as a quiet form of resistance. In a country where independent thought is increasingly dangerous, teaching compassion, curiosity, and truth is a radical act.

And for this, Masoumeh is now behind bars.

In August 2024, she was arrested by intelligence agents and placed in solitary confinement for two months in Ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. The charges? “Propaganda” and “membership in anti-government groups.” The evidence? Her belief in peaceful advocacy. Her crime was not violence, but voice.

Now 55 years old and suffering from diabetes, kidney failure, and neurological illness, Masoumeh has been sentenced to three years in prison. Her health is deteriorating. But the state treats her like a threat.

The image is surreal: a fragile woman, once surrounded by storybooks and chalk, now locked away from the world she once shaped. The same hands that used to hold a pointer stick and correct spelling errors now clutch the cold metal of prison bars.

Her story is not rare—but it is urgent.

Masoumeh is one of many women in Iran who are being systematically silenced for peaceful resistance. But she is also uniquely emblematic. She reminds us that authoritarianism doesn’t always strike with grand spectacle. Sometimes it moves quietly, one teacher at a time, removing them from the blackboard and hoping we won’t notice the silence.

But we do notice. And we must speak.