The gas poisoning of school girls in Iran has resumed, with the third incident happening in a week in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province, southwestern Iran.
On Saturday, November 4, 2023, a number of students in Kowsar girls’ school in Ahvaz had to be taken to hospital due to inhaling an odorous gas which caused shortness of breath and other symptoms of poisoning.
Official media in Iran did not use the term “poisoning,” and only wrote about “shortness of breath.”
In the meantime, the political and intelligence deputy of the governor of Khuzestan said the students were feeling “discomfort.”
Abdollah Afrazeh Shahavand rejected the notion of poisoning and said using the term poisoning is the enemy’s scheme and will be taken advantage of against national security.
He said, “What happened on Saturday, what a completely normal incident. A liquid that was supposed to be injected into the city gas (had leaked out) and this odor was smelt by citizens in their homes. It is not harmful at all and is not poisonous. As doctors have announced to us, these cases of discomfort are due to the stress exerted on the students.
On Sunday, October 29, sixty-seven schoolgirls at Zanjan’s Kowsar High School of Art also had to be hospitalized due to poisoning.
On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, an elementary girls’ school in Rasoulabad Baghdanieh village, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, fell victim to another chemical attack. Ambulances transported some of the poisoned students to nearby medical centers.
Following the chemical attack, military forces cordoned off the school, preventing parents and local residents from approaching the affected area.
Girls’ schools and high schools across Iran fell prey to chemical attacks from December 2022 through April 2023. Shockingly, over 700 schools in more than 160 cities across Iran have been affected. Various Health Ministry officials, Members of Parliament (MPs), and regime authorities estimated the number of affected students to be between 5,000 and 13,000 in February and early March, with at least five children losing their lives in these horrific attacks.
The clerical regime failed to take any significant measures to halt these organized attacks nationwide, nor did it provide any convincing answers to the parents and the public.
The NCRI Women’s Committee calls on the UN Special Rapporteurs to undertake effective measures to investigate this new wave of gas poisoning of young children in Iran and stop it from spreading.
