May 25 2023

Girls and women who played a major role in the countrywide protests fell victim to the mysterious incidents identified as deliberate poisoning attacks in Iran.

In a crackdown aimed at curbing a defiant uprising against the ultra-Conservative fundamentalist cleric regime and quelling countrywide demonstrations after the deliberate poisoning of school girls, Iranian institutions are banning the students from education, forcing them to go into exile in the cities of Ahvaz, Semnan, Kashan, Urmia, and Ardabil.

As many as eight students have been deprived of education for up to two years or were exiled to other cities as a form of “punishment” for protesting against the chemical attacks on women and girls across Iran’s universities and schools, according to Persian language broadcaster Iran International.

A string of suspected poison attacks that affected schoolgirls in dozens of schools and universities forced the parents of the young girls and women to stop them from attending classes. As a result, women and girls across the Islamic Republic of Iran defaulted on their education, and in many cases, they were permanently withdrawn from educational institutions by their parents.

Particularly, female students in Iran faced health hazards from chemical poisoning in at least 33 cities across 17 Iranian provinces. These incidents coincided with the anti-hijab protests by Iranian women following the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

Iran women’s movement for ‘freedom and equality’

Hundreds of schoolgirls reported unexplained illnesses after suffering from suspicious “mild to severe poisoning” which critics of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suggest was a planned targeting by hardline Islamist groups as they are opposed to girls education.

A significant number of Iranian women and girls have been leading a movement against the compulsory state-sanctioned law of wearing a head scarf, posting videos and pictures on social media burning the hijab, while others sharing visuals of themselves chopping their hair in defiance of the country’s morality police—known as Gasht-e Ershad [Guidance Patrols]— that enforces strict moral ‘dress code’ on the women. Slogans like “Women, life, freedom” heard during the Amini protests took center stage to the Iranian women’s movement demanding ‘freedom and equality!’

Under Iranian law, special police units coerce women to cover their hair and neck with a hijab. The torture of women in violation of the dress code in police custody sparked widespread protests to overthrow the Islamic Republic system. Iranian women have taken to the streets demanding the ouster of the conservative hard-liners.

Speculations emerged that Mahsa Amini was beaten in the head with a baton by morality police, which caused her death. Greater Tehran Police Commander Hossein, however, attributed her demise to “sudden heart failure”, a claim rejected by the woman’s father, who told an Iranian news outlet that Amini was “fit and had no health problems”.

Hijab in Iran was mandated shortly after the 1979 revolution, by order of Supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic. The law has been exploited by morality police in restricting women’s clothing in Iran.

The noxious gas attacks on the Iranian women and girls occurred parallel to the crackdown on unprecedented protests by Iranian security forces who fired gunshots directly into women’s faces, breasts and genitals “to destroy their beauty”, according to the medics, doctors and nurses treating the demonstrators.

Raft of repressive measures to punish ‘hijab rebels’

A raft of repressive measures was imposed across Iran to crack down and punish the hijab rebels. This included surveillance and cutting access to social services and the Internet. Women held by the security forces without the headscarf mandated under the regime’s law were arbitrarily detained, raped and beaten by the military police in custody, according to the Iranian press.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said that Iranian security forces were shooting women protesters in the head and face, leading to many losing eyesight. “Islamic Republic leader, Ali Khamenei and the repressive forces under his command must know that they will be held accountable for all their crimes,” IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, stated.

Girls and women who played a major role in the countrywide protests fell victim to the mysterious incidents identified as deliberate poisoning attacks to prevent them from seeking education. Young students were taken to the hospital after they seemed to have fallen ill by smelling toxic gas.

Across institutions, including the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, students were dealt with heavyhandedly and were pronounced severe punishments such as dismissal from the institutes. US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), in its analysis, noted that an estimated 637 students from 144 universities have been arrested since mid-September.
‘Not war chemicals, can be treated’: Iranian Health Minister

Emergency forces were dispatched to the scene after a wave of poisonings of female high school students in Tehran, which parents said occurred due to a poisonous gas smell, according to Fars news agency. Those admitted to the hospitals reported symptoms including respiratory distress, numbness in their limbs, heart palpitations, headaches, nausea, and vomiting.

Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi, however, noted that the poisoning of schoolgirls was “accidental”. The poisoning caused to the students was very mild, and did not cause any complications to anyone,” he was reported saying, adding that the poisoning only caused ‘lethargy.’

“It has been revealed that the chemical compounds used to poison students are not war chemicals, the poisoned students do not need aggressive treatment and a large percentage of the chemical agents used are treatable,” he added. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, at a Cabinet meeting, tasked his interior minister to lead an effort to find the cause of the poisonings as well as coordinate an appropriate response, according to ISNA.

Source » republicworld

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