Iran fails to stem the wave of gas attacks on schools

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities have failed to prevent poisoning at girls’ schools across the country as dozens of education facilities have come under toxic gas attacks in recent days, with anxious families stopping their children from going to school. 

Iranian activists reported gas attacks in at least ten schools across the country on Sunday morning, a day after around three dozen schools were subjected to the similar attacks. 

“From the early moments, the security and the intelligence agencies have done their utmost to reveal the extent of this event and to identify the individuals involved in these incidents,” the interior minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday night. “As soon as we have definitive results, we will inform the public.”

The first attack occurred late last year in the city of Qom but the number of attacks has increased dramatically in recent weeks. Vahidi said that “suspicious samples” have been discovered during the field investigation and they have been sent to the best laboratories in the country for testing. “The result will be revealed to the people of Iran by the ministry of health,” Vahidi added.

Vahidi’s deputy, Majid Mir Ahmadi, claimed that those behind the attacks are the ones who proclaimed the “Women, Life, Freedom” slogan. 

“Their main objective is to create psychological insecurity especially for the schoolgirls, to close the schools and then accusing the [Iranian] state so in order to light the flames of the riots once again,” Ahmadi told the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Farsnews. “Of course we need to note that the overwhelming majority of the pupils suffer side effects because of the stress and anxiety and that is why the issue has become far greater than it is.”

The gas attacks cause a feeling of nausea, burning sensations, and shortage of breath. Thousands of families have been affected and there is a sense of panic spreading across the country. 

The poisoning of hundreds of Iranian schoolgirls is a horrific, violent attempt to frighten young women from seeking education and to silence their voices. I am praying for every girl to recover and reclaim her place in school.

#SaveIranianSchoolGirls

— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) March 2, 2023

“I was so anxious that I could not answer the questions and everyone was wearing three masks during the examination,” a young woman told Rudaw English who sat for her masters’ entry exam on Friday. “Everyone was panicking, they separated the male and female students during the examination and this added to our anxiety,” she added.

The parents and those affected are very hesitant to talk to the media because of the bloody crackdown that the security forces have inflicted on the population in the aftermath of the nationwide antigovernment protest.

UNICEF is following the reports of poisoning cases in schools. Schools are safe havens where children can learn in a safe and protective environment.

— UNICEF Iran (@UNICEF_IRAN) March 2, 2023

In a video from a hospital in the northern city of Lahijan, a mother was overhead saying that the school authorities were not allowing the students out of the school when it came under toxic gas attack on Saturday. 

“The safety of the schools is our basic right,” a group of mothers in Isfahan shouted outside the education office in the city. One carried a banner saying “those behind the poisoning of schools should be arrested and punished”.

 On Saturday, as an IRGC officer tried to speak to the panicked mothers, some started shouting “safety of the schools is out basic right.”

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