Nicosia: Is the mysterious and unexplained wave of schoolgirl poisoning in numerous Iranian cities, which thus far has affected greater than 900 ladies, a “revenge” assault by excessive Islamists who don’t need ladies to attend faculties, or authorities supporters who’re “avenging” girls and ladies for the widespread protests sparked by the demise of Mahsa Amini, or as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi claims the work of Tehran`s enemies.
The primary identified incident of schoolgirl poisoning occurred on November 30 within the metropolis of Qom, when about 50 college students fell in poor health and had been taken to the hospital. Based on the media, the ladies reported a pungent odor of rotten tangerines, chlorine, or cleansing brokers, after which suffered from complications, dizziness, respiratory issues, and nausea. A few of them even skilled short-term paralysis of their limbs.
Though the ladies had been launched after a couple of days, an 11-year-old lady named Fatemeh Rezai reportedly died from the poisoning, though her household and the physician who handled her stated that she had died from “an acute an infection and was not poisoned.”Iranian media reported that the schoolgirl poisoning in Qom was adopted by not less than 58 faculties in eight provinces and within the capital metropolis of Tehran, and the cities of Borujerd and Ardebi.
Dozens of ladies had been hospitalized in addition to some boys and academics who had been additionally affected by the poisonous substance used within the assaults. On Saturday, the Reuters information company reported that illness affected greater than 30 faculties in not less than 10 of Iran`s 31 provinces and that dozens of scholars had been taken to hospitals for remedy. At first, the Iranian regime tried to dismiss and downplay the incidents.
Nonetheless, because the frequency of the assaults elevated, it realized that it might now not conceal the truth that what occurred to women` faculties throughout the nation was not unintentional.The United Nations Human Rights workplace in Geneva known as on Friday for a clear investigation into suspected assaults and several other international locations, together with Germany and america, have voiced concern.
Iranian Deputy Training Minister Younes Panahi admitted that the assaults had been intentional however didn’t contain military-grade however publicly out there chemical compounds.”It grew to become evident that some folks needed all faculties, particularly ladies` faculties, to be closed down,” he stated, later claiming that his remarks had been misunderstood. Final Friday, President Ebrahim Raisi claimed that the poisoning was the work of Iran`s enemies, who search to trigger chaos within the nation and attempt to instil worry, despair and insecurity amongst dad and mom and college students.
Raisi appointed the Inside Ministry to supervise the investigations, whereas the prosecutor normal introduced the opening of a prison investigation and added that out there proof signifies prison and premeditated acts. Based on a report in Al Jazeera, Reza Karimi Saleh, deputy governor of the Pardis suburb of Tehran, stated {that a} gasoline tanker discovered subsequent to the college within the suburb was attacked with a poisonous substance was additionally noticed within the assaults towards faculties in Qom.
The driving force of the tanker has been arrested. Many Iranians worry that Islamist hardliners are behind the assaults as their purpose is to terrorize the ladies and make their households cease sending them to highschool. Such strategies had been utilized by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2010 and extra lately by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, which in 2014 kidnapped 276 schoolgirls.
Alireza Monadi, a lawmaker and the pinnacle of Parliament`s training committee, stated on Tuesday that the colleges had been intentionally attacked and that 30 toxicologists within the Well being Ministry had recognized the toxins present in faculties as nitrogen fuel.
Monadi and the deputy Well being minister, Younes Panahi, stated the motive gave the impression to be to stop ladies from attending faculties, elevating alarm concerning the potential infiltration of Islamic extremist teams. Many individuals declare that the assaults are the work of parts of the clerical institution itself and are a payback for the widespread demonstrations held after the demise of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish lady, who died whereas in custody after her arrest by the morality police for the crime …of not carrying her headband correctly.
The demise of Mahsa Amini final September sparked repeated mass protests in dozens of Iranian cities and cities everywhere in the nation by each men and women who vent their anger on the repressive clerical regime that imposes innumerable restrictions on its residents and ladies particularly. Social media confirmed hundreds of movies of girls and schoolgirls ripping their headscarves and chanting slogans towards the Founding father of the Iranian Theocracy Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei, President Raisi, and different senior clerics. Below the slogan: “Girl, Life, Freedom,” ladies held quite a few protests of their faculties and eliminated their obligatory headscarves.
Afterward, tens of hundreds of individuals joined these protests, chanting “Dying to the Dictator”. These large protests undoubtedly pose the largest opposition problem to the Tehran Theocracy in years. The hard-line Iranian information company Fars reported that the schoolgirl poisonings had been a conspiracy by the opposition based mostly exterior the nation to impress “the silent majority” who didn’t take part on the street protests however might be part of a brand new wave of demonstrations calling for a revolution.
Nevertheless, a number of exiled Iranians level out the truth that dozens of faculties had been attacked in so many cities and so many provinces and say that this might not have been the handiwork of a small group of Islamic extremists, however of a department of the Iranian state, which is finishing up a “false flag” operation, “revenging” schoolgirls for the anti-government protests.
One can not say if the true culprits of those assaults shall be revealed in the long run, however the truth stays that the completely different explanations given by Iranian officers create confusion, intensifying the justified suspicion and lack of belief of bizarre Iranians in the direction of the federal government of their nation.
Senior cleric Mohammad Javad Tabatabai-Borujerdi was quoted by the Iranian media as saying: “Officers are giving contradictory statements … one says it’s intentional, one other says it’s security-linked and one other official blames it on faculties` heating methods…Such statements enhance folks`s distrust within the authorities.”
(Disclaimer: Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee Information employees and is printed from a syndicated feed)
