Dozens of schoolgirls were poisoned on Saturday in several schools across Iran, local media reported, in a continuation of the mysterious phenomenon that has shaken the country for months.
Since late November many schools, mostly for girls, have been affected by sudden poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances, in some cases causing fainting and hospitalisation among the students.
At least “60 students were poisoned in a girls’ school in the town of Haftkel” in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, the IRIB news agency quoted a local official as saying.
A number of schoolgirls were poisoned in “five schools in Ardabil in the northwest”, where the victims showed symptoms of “anxiety, shortness of breath and headaches”, a provincial medical official told the news agency run by state television.
In the northwestern town of Urmia, capital of West Azerbaijan province, “a number of schoolgirls were taken to hospital on Saturday after feeling sick”, ILNA news agency reported without further elaboration.
According to an official count provided on March 7, “more than 5,000 students” have been affected by similar poisonings in more than 230 establishments, located in 25 of the country’s 31 provinces.
MP Hamidreza Kazemi, the head of a national fact-finding committee formed to investigate the cases, said on Friday that its final report would be published “in two weeks”.
“We have received reports from various bodies and we are studying the issue in order to present our conclusion to parliament,” he was quoted as saying by state television.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on March 6 for “severe sentences” up to the death penalty against those found responsible for the poisonings, which he described as “unforgivable crimes”.
The poisonings began two months after the start of a protest movement sparked by the Sept 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.
There has been speculation that the poisonings could be the work of conservative forces that oppose girls’ education, but no hard leads along these lines have been established.
Camera campaign
In a related development, authorities are installing cameras in public places and thoroughfares to identify and penalise unveiled women, the police announced on Saturday.
After they have been identified, violators will receive “warning text messages as to the consequences”, police said in a statement.
The move is aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law”, said the statement, carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and other state media, adding that such resistance tarnishes the country’s spiritual image and spreads insecurity.
Despite risking arrest for defying the obligatory dress code, women are still widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets around the country. Videos of unveiled women resisting the morality police have flooded social media in recent months.
Describing the veil as “one of the civilisational foundations of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic,” an Interior Ministry statement said on March 30 that there would be no retreat on the issue.
It urged citizens to confront unveiled women. Such directives have in past decades emboldened hardliners to attack women. Last week a viral video showed a man throwing yoghurt at two unveiled women in a shop.