An Iranian deputy minister admitted that “some people” intentionally poisoned female students in the holy city of Qom with the aim of stopping education for girls.
State media reported. Since the end of November, hundreds of cases of respiratory poisoning have been reported among female students mainly in Qom, south of Tehran, with some of them forced to hospitalize.
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Today, Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi implicitly confirmed that the poisonings were deliberate. “After the poisoning of several students in Qom schools, it was discovered that some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed,” state news agency Irna reported, quoting Panahi, without adding details.
So far there have been several arrests related to the poisonings. On February 14, the parents of the girls who fell ill gathered outside the governorate of the city to “ask for explanations” from the authorities.
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The next day government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said the ministries of intelligence and education were trying to determine the cause of the poisonings.
Last week, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri ordered a judicial investigation into these incidents. The poisonings come as Iran is rocked by protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police, for an alleged violation of the hijab obligation.
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“The poisoning of female students is the revenge of the terrorist regime of the Islamic Republic against the brave women who defied the hijab obligation and shook Khamenei’s Berlin Wall,” the well-known Iranian activist who emigrated abroad commented on Twitter Masih Alinejad, “they want to stop the revolution Women, life, freedom”.