Authorities in Iran have announced the first series of arrests linked to alleged poisonings that have targeted female schoolchildren over the past several months.
“Based on the intelligence and research measures of the intelligence agencies, a number of people have been arrested in five provinces and the relevant agencies are conducting a full investigation,” Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state media according to The Guardian.
Since Nov. 2022, over 1,200 girls have been hospitalized throughout the country after reportedly smelling gas at their respective schools. “What is clear is that … it is a deliberate issue,” Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi stated. “Some people wanted all schools to be closed, especially girls’ schools,” he continued.
Human rights groups within the country have said the alleged poisonings have affected 7,068 students in a minimum of 103 schools in at least 99 cities throughout the country, The Guardian reported.
Iran makes first arrests over suspected schoolgirl poisonings https://t.co/M85YCGadd1
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) March 7, 2023
The poisonings have sparked anger throughout the country, with many people blaming Iran’s government for the incidents.
“These attacks are the result of the Iranian government’s own policies. Like the Iranian government, the people who are carrying out these attacks are petrified of the power of Iran’s school girls; of what Iran could become if these girls had a say in the government’s policies,” said Jasmin Ramsey, the deputy director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, according to NBC News. (RELATED: Regime Cracks Down As Protestors Wreak Havoc Across The Country)
The backlash was not disregarded by Iran’s government, which reportedly called in three journalists and a retired academic for questioning after they criticized the government’s response, according to The Guardian.
On March 6, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke out against the poisonings, calling them “unforgivable” and suggesting that those involved should face the death penalty.
“Authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. If it is proven deliberate, those perpetrators of this unforgivable crime should be sentenced to capital punishment,” he stated, according to Reuters.
Yet even as the supreme leader spoke out against the alleged poisonings, Education Minister Yousef Nouri dismissed the hospitalizations as “mass hysteria,” claiming that 95 percent of the girls had no medical problems besides “fear and worry,” The Guardian reported.
Nouri implored parents to only heed information from reliable media, stating that “it was natural for our enemy to conspire to close schools and stop students from studying,” per the outlet.
The White House has called for an independent investigation of the poisonings to determine if they were related to the protests that rocked the country in 2022, which saw schoolgirls removing their hijabs to protest the Iranian government, Reuters reported.