Iranian President accuses foreign enemies of poisoning schoolgirls

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has blamed a wave of poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls across the country on Tehran’s enemies.

So far, unprovoked toxic attacks on more than 30 schools in at least four cities in Iran’s Shiite holy city of Qom began in November, prompting some parents to remove their children from school.

Iran’s health minister said on Tuesday that hundreds of girls in various schools have been affected, and some politicians said they may have been targeted by religious groups opposed to girls’ education.

Addressing a rally in southern Iran on Friday, Raisi blamed Iran’s enemies for the poisoning.

“This is a security project that aims to create chaos in the country as the enemy seeks to sow fear and insecurity among parents and students,” he said.

He did not specify who these enemies were, although Iranian leaders accused the United States and Israel, among other countries, of working against him.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official said a tanker truck found near a school in a suburb of Tehran, which was also seen in two other cities, was likely involved in the accidents.

Reda Karimi Saleh, deputy governor of the Bardis suburb, said that the authorities confiscated the tanker and arrested its driver.

Saleh is the first government official to report an arrest related to the poisoning wave.

He added that the same tanker was also heading to Qom and Borujerd in Iran’s western Lorestan province, where the students were also poisoned. Did not specify.

“The guards are in the parking lot where the fuel tank was poisoned,” Saleh said, referring to Bardis’ website.

inquiry request

And in Geneva, the United Nations human rights office on Friday called for a transparent investigation into the attacks.

“We are deeply concerned by these allegations that girls are being deliberately targeted in seemingly ambiguous circumstances,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, during a press briefing.

She said the results of the government investigation must be made public and the perpetrators brought to justice.

Germany’s foreign minister, Analina Baerbock, added her voice to the international appeals, saying the reports were shocking and should be fully investigated.

“Girls should be able to go to school without fear,” Burbak said on Twitter. “It is nothing less than their human right. All cases must be thoroughly investigated.”

On Wednesday, a US State Department spokesperson called on Iran to investigate the poisonings in schools.

Some Iranian politicians have indicated that schoolgirls could have been targeted by religious groups opposed to girls’ education.

Social media posts are filled with photos and videos of girls in hospitals. Some said they felt nauseous and had heart palpitations. Others complained of headaches or heart palpitations. Business cannot be verified.

School girls have also taken part in the anti-government protests that erupted after the death in custody of an Iranian Kurdish woman last September. They took off their obligatory headscarves in class, tore up pictures of Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei and called for his death.

In a video posted online last year, schoolgirls were seen waving their headscarves in the air and harassing a member of Iran’s paramilitary Basij forces.