Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered an investigation after dozens of students at girls' schools were hospitalized following a suspected poisoning that may have affected hundreds of others.
The incident involved noxious fumes that caused students at girls' schools to become sick in what officials believe are attacks targeting women's education. Hundreds of students at roughly 30 affected schools have become sick since November.
Poisoning at Iranian Girls' Schools
Some of the patients were transferred to hospitals due to the severity of their health conditions. Initially, Iranian authorities dismissed the incidents and only acknowledged the gravity of the issue in recent days.
Several children complained about experiencing headaches, heart palpitations, feeling lethargic, or being unable to move. Some victims also said they smelled tangerines, chlorine, or cleaning agents.
In contrast with Afghanistan, Iran has no history of religious extremists that targeted girls' education. Even after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the country's Western-backed monarchy, women and girls in Iran have continued to attend school, as per the Voice of America News.
On Wednesday, Raisi was at a Cabinet meeting where he said that the Interior Ministry should investigate the incidents. The department should get assistance from the health and intelligence ministries and work on releasing the results to the public as soon as possible.
The statements marked the first time the Iranian president publicly addressed the girls' schools' poisonings. A senior security official downplayed the incident a day before Raisi's Cabinet meeting. They dismissed the poisonings as psychological warfare by unnamed enemies of the nation.
Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi said that more than 99% of the disease was caused by stress, rumor, and psychological war conducted by hostile TV channels. He argued that it was an attempt to cause a troublesome and stressful situation for students and their parents.
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Mild Symptoms
On Tuesday, a school official said that 37 schoolgirls were transferred for treatment by emergency services in Pardis. They added that the patients were experiencing symptoms of "mild poisoning" and noted that, fortunately, all girls were expected to recover, according to the Washington Post.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency said on the same day that several other female students suddenly fell ill in Qom. Many of the patients were suspected of having been victims of poisoning.
Similar incidents were found to have occurred in 10 to 15 cities across the country in the last few months, said a member of Iran's parliament, Abdulali Rahimi Mozafari. While the number of students experiencing the same symptoms across the country remains unclear, spokeswoman Zahra Sheikhi for the Health Commission said 800 students have suffered from mild poisoning in Qom alone for the past few months.
Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi visited affected students in Qom and said that some patients exhibited symptoms that included muscle weakness, nausea, and tiredness. The minister and his team took samples from the affected students who were admitted to one Qom hospital, which were found to have no signs of microbes or viruses, said CNN.
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