Gas attacks on girls’ schools: Hundreds of young women in Iran with poisoning in hospital Biden wants to cancel debts of millions of students – judges are skeptical

That happened

In Iran, mysterious cases of poisoning among schoolchildren have sparked fear and isolated new protests. Dozens of girls and young women have recently been taken to hospital with symptoms of poisoning. In the most recent case, at least 26 schools in five different cities across the country were said to have been affected.

About 1,000 students have been hospitalized in Iran since last November, according to the BBC. They suffered from symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, difficulty breathing or fatigue – typical signs of gas poisoning. The capital Tehran has also been hit. BBC Persian published videos showing ambulances arriving at schools and treating female students.

According to the current state of knowledge, the poisoning does not seem to cause lasting damage to the affected schoolgirls. According to Iranian Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi, the poisoning was mild and did not cause any complications.

The bad suspicion

The frequency of similar incidents has raised a dark suspicion among the Iranian people that they could be deliberate attacks by religious zealots who want to prevent girls from attending school or university.

There is also the theory that the gas attacks on girls’ schools are a retaliation by Islamist groups for the large protests last fall, which demanded more rights and freedoms for women. Last September, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody, Iranian women in particular took to the streets to demand justice and more rights. Amini was arrested by the vice police because she would not wear her headscarf properly.

Another indication that religious fanatics are the cause of the poisoning is that the first documented cases occurred in the city of Qom and that the phenomenon was initially concentrated in the city of more than a million people, not far south of the capital Tehran . Qom is considered one of the most important religious centers of the Shia, to which the majority of the Iranian population belongs. Compared to other parts of the country, Qom, which is also a pilgrimage site, has an above-average number of conservative Islamic denominations.

This is how the Iranian authorities are responding

Even the Iranian authorities, which used unprecedented brutality against demonstrators during last fall’s protests, have at least partially admitted that the poisoning could have been intentional. Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi said on Sunday that it is “clear that some people want to close girls’ schools at all costs”. However, Panahi later rowed back, describing his statement as ambiguous.

According to the state news agency IRNA, MP Alireza Monadi, who sits on the education committee of Iran’s parliament, said the poisoning was likely “deliberate”. He described the fact that there are people who want to keep girls out of education as a “serious danger” and “very bad news”.

Iranian law enforcement officials have said they are investigating the incidents. Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan told the Iranian news agency ISNA, according to NBC News: “Our priority is to find the cause of the poisoning of the students. Until we find this, we cannot judge whether the poisoning was intentional or unintentional.”

That’s what human rights activists say

However, it is clear to critics of the Iranian government that they themselves are responsible for the incidents. Jasmine Ramsey, deputy director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, tells NBC News:

Iranian activist and journalist Masih Alinejad also directly blames the Iranian government for the incidents. The US-based women’s rights activist wrote on Twitter that the poisoning of the schoolgirls was “revenge of the terrorist Iranian regime against brave women”.