(Tehran) The case of poisoning of schoolgirls which has shaken Iran for several weeks rebounded on Tuesday near Tehran where dozens of schoolgirls were poisoned, a series of attacks attributed to opponents of girls’ education.
Some 35 students from the Khayyam girls’ school in Pardis, a city in Tehran province, “were transferred to hospital” after being unwell on Tuesday morning, the Tasnim news agency reported.
None of these schoolgirls was in a worrying state after having breathed in their establishment gaseous substances which remain mysterious.
This high-profile mass poisoning case began in late November when the media reported the first cases of respiratory poisoning of hundreds of girls aged around 10 in schools in the holy city. from Qom (center). Some of them were briefly hospitalized.
These poisonings are the work of “certain individuals” who are seeking, through this action, to “close all schools, especially girls’ schools”, the Ministry of Health revealed on Sunday.
For this, they use “chemical compounds available” on the market, he said, excluding substances “for military use”.
The case caused a wave of anger in the country, where voices denounced the silence of the authorities in the face of the growing number of schools affected.
Faced with these concerns, the national police chief, Ahmadreza Radan, announced on Tuesday that his forces were “in the process of identifying possible suspects”. No arrests have been announced at this time.
“All state services are trying to sweep away the apprehensions of the population,” he promised, according to Tasnim.
The Fars agency for its part announced the holding of “an emergency meeting” in Parliament to investigate the affair, with the participation of the ministers of Education, Intelligence and Health.
“Misogynistic fanatics”
Activists have likened those responsible for the attacks to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Boko Haram jihadists in West Africa, who oppose girls’ education.
This mysterious case comes as Iran faces a protest movement since the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by the morality police who accused her of having broken the strict dress code imposing in particular on women wearing the veil in public.
Qom MP Ahmad Amiri Farahani denounced the attacks as an “irrational act” and said residents of the holy city “support the education of girls”.
Object of a broad consensus, education for all is obligatory in Iran, where the girls even represent a majority of the students in the universities.
In this context, the reformist former vice-president Massoumeh Ebtekar on Tuesday urged the authorities “to put an end once and for all to the misogynist fanatics”.
A Shiite dignitary, Ayatollah Javad Alavi-Boroujerdi, for his part regretted the “contradictory statements by the authorities” about the origin of the case.
“One official cites intentional poisoning while another blames the malfunctioning of the heating system…Such contradictions reinforce people’s distrust of the state,” he said, according to the report. Shafaqna agency.