Iranian state media reported that school girls in Qom city in South Tehran were ‘deliberately’ poisoned in order to restrain education for them. Younes Panahi, the deputy health minister of the country on Sunday also confirmed the news of the poisoning and said that it had been a deliberate attempt with the aim of shutting down education for girls. He, however, said that no arrest has been made in the case.
It is pertinent to note here that earlier, Youssef Nouri, the Minister of Education had called the reports about the poisoning of schoolgirls “rumours”, claiming that the students taken to the hospital had “underlying diseases”.
According to reports, the first such incident was reported in Qom, a deeply conservative and religious city, in November last year. Then the incident of about 18 girls getting ill together in a school in Qom city came to light. They were then taken to the hospital. All the girls reportedly felt difficulty in breathing along with vomiting, abdominal pain and a sharp sensation in their hands and feet.
Subsequently, girls from neighbouring cities also fell sick. Since then, hundreds of cases of respiratory poisoning have been reported among schoolgirls.
On Sunday, Majid Monemi, the deputy governor of Lorestan, said 50 female students of a high school in Borujerd, western Iran, were poisoned again.
“It has been revealed that the chemical compounds used to poison students are not war chemicals, and the poisoned students do not need aggressive treatment, and a large percentage of the chemical agents used are treatable,” he told a press conference.
“After the poisoning of several students in Qom schools, it was found that some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed,” local media agencies cited IRNA state news agency, which in turn quoted Panahi as saying.
Homayoun Sameh Najafabadi, a member of the health committee of the parliament, also confirmed in an interview with the Didbaniran website that the poisoning of female students in schools of Qom and Borujerd is intentional.
Reports in local media say this could be the work of Islamist fanatics who want to prevent girls from attending school.
According to IRNA, on February 14, parents of the ill students gathered outside the city’s governorate to “demand an explanation” from the authorities.
The next day, government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi stated the intelligence and education ministries were investigating the cause of poisoning.
Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri launched a judicial investigation into the event last week.
Anti-hijab protests raged across Iran
Significantly, the poisoning began in late November, amidst unprecedented protests against Iran’s regime for the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. She was arrested by the ‘Morality Police’ in Tehran for “improper hijab”, which means she had not fully covered her hair. She was arrested by the police and then beaten in the police van while being taken to a detention centre, dubbed as a ‘re-education class’ for not conforming to the country’s mandatory hijab rules.
Soon after, Iran saw a wave of protests following her killing, with many women taking to the streets to take a stand. In support of the victims, a number of women, including schoolgirls, burnt their hijabs, and women everywhere chopped their hair in protest. Protests broke out in hundreds of places around the nation after her death.
The Police used brutal force to contain the protests, which died down after several weeks after the govt used excessive force to control it, where several protesters, including minors, were killed, and thousands were arrested.