Schoolgirls have been repeatedly poisoned in Iran for several months. Many of them have to be hospitalized with shortness of breath. The mysterious events began in November, when anti-leadership demonstrations in Tehran were in full swing.
More than five months after anti-government protests began in Iran, dozens of schoolgirls have been hospitalized in the city of Pardis, near Tehran, for suspected poisoning. The Tasnim news agency reported that “a number of students at the Chayyam girls’ school in the city of Pardis in the province of Tehran were poisoned.” 35 girls were taken care of in the hospital. According to media reports, there had been similar cases again and again in the past three months.
The first incidents were reported as early as November – when the nationwide protests against the leadership in Tehran were in full swing. The protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died on September 16 after vice squad arrested her in Tehran for violating the strict dress code.
Since November, hundreds of cases of shortness of breath in schoolgirls have been reported in at least two other cities, including the city of Qom. Most recently, students at a girls’ school in Boroujerd were hospitalized after another mysterious incident of poisoning on Sunday – the fourth in the western Iranian city within a week.
Parliament discussed the poisoning cases in a session on Tuesday. According to the Irna news agency, Iranian Health Minister Bahram Ejnollahi also took part. Irna quoted the speaker of the parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as saying that both in Qom and in Boroujerd there were “poisoning of schoolgirls”.
Vice President Massumeh Ebtekar deplored the “repeated crime of poisoning girls”. She called on the authorities to “put an end to the misogynistic fanatics once and for all”.
The alleged poisoning would be investigated, Iranian police chief Ahmed-Resa Radan told the Tasnim news agency. It is the priority of the police to get to the bottom of the causes, he said. “Until then, we will not judge whether it is a premeditated act or not.” No one has been arrested so far, but suspects have been identified.
A government official had previously said the alleged premeditated attacks were believed to be aimed at forcing girls’ schools to close. According to Irna, Deputy Health Minister Junes Panahi said after the poisoning cases in Qom it was found “that some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed”.
Parents and activists were outraged by the poisoning. Activists compared those responsible to the radical Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan and the jihadist militia Boko Haram in Nigeria, who fundamentally reject education for girls.
According to media reports, parents had demanded an explanation from the authorities at a demonstration in front of the governor’s office in Qom in mid-February. Government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi then said that the secret service and the Ministry of Education were in the process of determining the causes of the poisoning. Then last week, Attorney General Mohammed Jafar Montaseri ordered a judicial investigation.