More than 50 students were taken to hospital in Urmia, West Azerbaijan province after chemical attacks on three schools, reported human rights monitor Hengaw. Schools in Tehran province, Hamedan, Dezful, Saqqaz, and Ardabil were also attacked.
Reports of mass poisonings at girls’ schools around the country began to emerge last November. According to Amnesty International, 13,000 school girls have received medical care after attacks on their schools that caused shortness of breath, numbness, and difficulty walking. One girl has reportedly died.
Authorities at first suppressed or denied the reports for weeks before a criminal investigation was opened in February. More than 100 people have since been arrested.
Iranian authorities “have failed to release any information to the families and the public about the result of investigations into chemical gases used to poison schoolgirls, to hold perpetrators to account, and to take adequate measures to protect schoolgirls from widespread attacks,” Amnesty said on Wednesday, appealing to Tehran to grant the United Nations access to investigate the attacks.
The attacks appear to be related to protests that broke out in September after the death of a Kurdish woman in custody for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code. Women and girls led protests against the mandatory hijab, removing their headscarves in schools and public places and chanting “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi [Woman, Life, Freedom]”.
UN human rights experts in March said they feared the attacks “are orchestrated to punish girls for their involvement in the movement - Women, Life, Freedom, and for expressing their opposition to mandatory hijab and voicing their demands for equality.”
In a crackdown on headscarf violations, authorities have installed cameras in public places and on Sunday police announced they had closed more than 150 businesses in 24 hours for not respecting the dress code, AFP reported.
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