Poisoning in Iranian schools: the authorities arrest a hundred people

New twist in the case of drunk students in Iran. In a new statement released by the official news agency IrnaIran’s Interior Ministry announced that ” More than 100 people suspected of being responsible for the school incidents have been identified, arrested and interrogated “.

5000 students affected

At the beginning of November, a few months after the death of Mahsa Amini which had generated a wave of protests to denounce the climate of violent repression against Iranian women, intoxications from respiratory voices had begun to multiply in the girls’ schools of the country. In total, these are more than 5,000 students » who were hit in « about 230 schools 25 of the country’s 31 provinces are affected. The government, criticized for its lack of transparency, had been slow to open an investigation. It was finally at the end of February, under pressure from the families of the female students, that the authorities have taken up the case. Many doubts still hovered over the identity of the attackers, the opposition suspected that the Iranian regime was itself the source of these mysterious poisonings. Since then, the government has tried at all costs to stall, citing isolated cases whose complications were mainly due to anxiety and stress.

“Hostile Reasons”

While the outlines of these arrests remain unclear, the ministry said some of those arrested had ” hostile reasons “, AS ” create fear and horror among people and students “, try to do ” close schools ” AND ” create pessimism towards the Islamic establishment “. The government is also advancing possible links to terrorist organizations “.

These arrests took place in Tehran and Qom provinces in the north, East and West Azerbaijan in the northwest, Kurdistan and Hamadan in the west. The government was pleased to have, thanks to these arrests, ” decreased significantly “the number of poisonings” since the middle of last week “, stating that there was not” new cases of sick students “. At a time when pressures threaten the freedoms of Iranian women are intensifying, we hope that the country’s young women can find their way back to school safely.