Iran: new cases of poisoning, poisoning extends to high school girls
After schoolgirls and college girls, it is now high school girls who are targeted. New cases of intoxication of young girls were listed this Sunday in several regions of Iran, where the mystery persists on this affair which causes a strong emotion in the country.
The poisoning of several students was reported in two girls’ high schools in the cities of Abhar (west) and Ahvaz (southwest), but also in a primary school in Zanjan (west), reported in the morning. Isna news agency, citing local health officials.
Schoolgirls were also poisoned in schools in the holy city of Mashhad (north-east), Shiraz (south) and Isfahan (center), according to the Mehr and Ilna agencies.
Over the past three months, several hundred cases of gas poisoning have been reported in 52 establishments, according to the official tally. In a press release published on Saturday evening, the Minister of the Interior, Ahmad Vahidi, reported the discovery of “suspicious samples” during “field research”, without further details.
President Ebrahim Raïsi had asked the ministries of the Interior and Intelligence on Friday to “defeat the plot of the enemy which aims to create fear and despair in the population”. Questioned by the Fars agency, the deputy interior minister, Majid Mirahmadi, accused the “designers of the poisoning of girls” of wanting to “close the schools” but also of “blaming the system” in order to “revive the extinguished flame of the riots”.
The manager was referring to protest movement triggered in Iran by the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, a young woman detained by the morality police in the name of a badly arranged veil.
The government downplays
According to the Deputy Minister of the Interior, “a very small percentage” of poisonings were caused by “intentional actions”, but “a significant part” of the pupils suffered from complications due to “anxiety and stress “.
Last week, a Health Ministry official explained that “certain individuals” were seeking, through these actions, to “close all schools, especially girls’ schools”. This version has not been taken over by other maintainers.
This mysterious case provoked mobilizations of parents of students worried about their children and asking the authorities to act.
