In a shocking incident, schoolgirls were poisoned in the
holy city of Qom in the Islamic Republic of Iran. An Iranian government
official reportedly said that the schoolgirls were deliberately poisoned to
keep them away from their studies.
Quoting an Iranian deputy minister, the Fars News Agency
reported that "some unknown" people were doing this
"deliberately" to stop the education of schoolgirls. According to a
state news agency IRNA, the schoolgirls were being fed with some "unknown"
materials.
Younes Panahi, Iran’s deputy health minister, reportedly
said that some people wanted the closure of all schools, especially girls’
schools.
Since November 2022, several cases of respiratory poisoning
have been reported in Qom, the seventh-largest city in Iran. Last week, around
15 girls were hospitalised due to this problem.
A lot of videos of schoolgirls fainting on the school
premises also went viral on social media. Younes Panahi did not confirm whether
the investigating agencies arrested any person in relation to the cases.
Reportedly, some parents also protested outside the schools seeking
clarification on the matter. Parents also protested outside the city governor’s
office. According to Arab News, they chanted, “We don’t want unsafe schools”
and “schools must be secured.”
The government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said that
education ministries were investigating the cases. This type of incident also
took place in other cities in Iran. Around 82 students were hospitalised with
suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Borujerd, a city and the capital of
Borujerd County, Lorestan Province in the western Islamic Republic of Iran. The
students were suffering from nausea, headaches, coughing, breathing problems
and an irregular heartbeat. Similar cases were also reported in Tehran, the
capital of Iran.
This comes amid a wave of anti-government and anti-hijab
protests sparked by the death in police custody of a 22-year-old Iranian woman
Mahsa Amini on September 16.