Toxic Terror: Iranian Schoolgirls Poisoned
Today, we are discussing a serious issue that has been causing concern and outrage in Iran and beyond: the poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran.
Reports have emerged of multiple incidents of Iranian schoolgirls being targeted with toxic chemicals in their schools, causing serious harm to their health.
So, let’s start with what we know about the situation.
These incidents have been happening since November 30. The chemical attacks paused for a few weeks during the Persian New Year holidays, but resumed on the first day of school after Nowruz. The attacks have been highly targeted and directed mainly at Iranian schoolgirls. More than 500 schools in over 110 cities throughout Iran have reported incidents of students being poisoned.
These incidents involve the use of toxic chemicals, which have caused symptoms, including headaches, vomiting, and breathing difficulties. Some students have even been hospitalized due to the severity of their symptoms.
We received a detailed report on the chemical attack on a girls’ conservatory in Tehran’s 15th district. The conservatory has about 300 students.
The students said they were poisoned by a nauseating sweet smell, like a very sweet detergent. Some students vomited, and others had difficulty breathing. One student was kept in the hospital due to severe coughing. Some students were scared and wanted to leave the school, but the doors were closed, and they were not allowed to leave.
The authorities took tests but didn’t disclose the results. The school had a camera, but the officials claimed no video had been recorded.
The government’s response to the poisoning of students
The government’s response has been criticized for being inadequate. The authorities have not launched a proper investigation to determine who is responsible, and there is still no clear information about what caused the victims to be hospitalized.
Various officials make conflicting statements on the cause of the poisonings. Some media outlets have accused the students of lying and misbehaving and have even accused the teachers of being criminals for closing classes and accompanying the students who were affected.
The Minister of Health has claimed that more than 90% of the reported cases are not due to poisoning and are caused by anxiety and stress. Although the Minister of Interior received an official mandate to follow up on the poisoning case and inform about it, there has been no clear action from the ministry.
Instead, they have referred to the incidents as “discomfort,” “childish mischief by students,” and “anxiety and stress.”
The government made some arrests
Before the Nowruz holidays, the authorities claimed to have arrested some 100 individuals involved. But we saw that the chemical attacks resumed after Nowruz. Moreover, it was revealed that those arrested were from among the students or the protesters participating in the uprising last autumn and winter.
These individuals have been subjected to torture and other forms of mistreatment to extract forced confessions from them. Security services have been pressuring students to falsely confess to poisoning their classmates. And they have brought several of them on TV.
Who are the individuals arrested?
We have the names of three Iranian schoolgirls, Setayesh Darugheh, 16, Erfaneh Honar, 19, and Setayesh Amiri, 17, who were arrested and pressured to confess that they were involved in the poisoning of schools in Larestan, Fars Province. One of them was brought to TV and made a confession that she had thrown sprays into three schools, but it was so obvious that she had been forced to lie.
Another young man, Milad Manzarian, an athlete and construction engineer, has been arrested and brutally tortured to make false confessions. He was among the protesters arrested during the uprising and temporarily released on bail.
Actually, this is one of the regime’s new practices. In the case of the death of a 9-year-old boy during the protests, the regime has accused one of the arrested protesters of killing him and handed down a death verdict for him, while the victim’s parents say they saw with their own eyes that the security forces were the ones who shot at them and killed their son.
