Over the past three months, hundreds of girls in several Iranian schools were affected by noxious fumes in their classrooms, and some of them were in such serious condition that they had to go to the hospital.
Iranian officials initially downplayed these incidents, but have now described them as deliberate attacks.
Local media reports identified around 30 schools where such poisonings took place. There is speculation that the incidents may be aimed at preventing girls from attending school in the country of over 80 million people.
The incidents in Iran come as protests continue for several months, culminating in the death in September of Mahsa Amini after his arrest by morality police last year.
Authorities have not named the suspects, but such attacks are suspected to have been poisonings to prevent girls from getting an education. Girls’ education has never been challenged in Iran in the more than 40 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran has also been calling on the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan to lift the ban on girls and women going to schools and colleges. The first case was reported in late November in Qom, about 125 kilometers southwest of Iran’s capital Tehran.
In November, students at the Noor Yazdanshahr Conservatory fell ill in the city holy to the Shia community. He fell ill again in December. Children complained of headache, restlessness, feeling lethargic or unable to move.
Some students reported that it smelled like orange, chlorine or cleaning chemicals. Initially the administration did not see any connection in the cases. Here during winter the temperature drops below the freezing point at night. Many schools use natural gas to heat the rooms, leading to speculation that the girls were affected by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Initially, the education minister dismissed the news as a rumour. But the affected schools taught only adolescent girls, leading to suspicions that this was not accidental. After this similar incidents came to the fore in Qom and Borujerd along with Tehran. A boys’ school was also targeted.
After this the officials started taking the claims seriously. Iran’s prosecutor general ordered an investigation, saying there were “suspicions of intentional criminal acts”.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry also reportedly conducted an investigation. On Sunday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA aired several reports in which officials acknowledged the deepening of the crisis. Erna quoted Deputy Health Minister Yunus Panahi as saying, “After it was found that students in schools in Qom were affected by the poison, some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed. ”
Health Ministry spokesman Pedram Pakyan said the poisoning did not come from any virus or microbe. Ali Raza Monadi, Member of Parliament and associated with the Education Committee, said that these incidents were carried out deliberately.
Monadi said, “The existence of evil forces trying to stop girls from education is a serious threat. We need to get to the bottom of the matter.
Several schools in Qom were closed in recent weeks after several parents stopped sending their children after reports of children being poisoned in classrooms.
Incidents of attack on women in Iran have happened before. The most recent was a series of acid attacks on women in 2014 in Isfahan. At the time it was believed that women were being targeted by fundamentalists because of their dress.
Despite this, such incidents did not stop to prevent school girls from attending classes. Former reformist parliamentarian and journalist Jamileh Kadivar wrote in Tehran’s Etelat newspaper that 400 students were sick after being poisoned.
He warned that “subversive opposition” groups could be behind the attacks. Kadivar also expressed apprehension that some extremist forces in the country may be behind these incidents “whose goal is to transform the Islamic Republic into a Caliphate regime or a Taliban-style regime.”
