Since November, at least 1,000 female students from 52 Iranian institutions have manifested signs of poisoning, particularly from exposure to poisonous fumes.
Breathing issues, nausea, headaches, and dizziness are the most often reported issues.
Over 5,000 females poisoned in over 230 schools is mentioned in certain media outlets.
Even a girl passed away in Qom. Before blaming the symptoms, some kids told the media they smelled tangerines, chlorine, or detergents. Others mentioned the scent of fruit or rotting eggs.
The mystery of the poisoning of females has already reached at least 21 regions in Iran, and on March 6 even the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had to openly speak on the situation, calling it a unforgivable crime. In reality, the number of poisoning incidents over the past four months has steadily increased to the point that the authorities are now forced to acknowledge their gravity and unquestionably non-random character. In February, Dr. Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, a member of the parliamentary health committee, was one of the first to acknowledge that poisonings of female students "in towns like Qom and Borujerd" had been deliberately carried out.
An unidentified Iranian doctor who treated several of the poisoning cases told The Guardian on February 27 that an organophosphate was most likely to blame for the symptoms that all of the girls reported experiencing. A chemical substance that may operate on acetylcholinesterase and has a highly neurotoxic impact, one that is frequently employed in the manufacturing of insecticides or nerve agents. The race for the authorities to identify the culprit begins when the cases of poisoning grow so numerous that they can no longer be kept secret.
President Ebrahim Raisi said that it would be a plot by the enemy of the administration to sow widespread unrest and panic among the populace.
Raisi made the same accusations against the protesters who have been demonstrating in the streets since Mahsa Amini died last September, calling for respect for human rights, particularly women's rights, and the resignation of the government: agitators and enemies, he claimed, capable of poisoning hundreds of girls to stir up the commotion. Regarding the inquiry into the poisonings, Raisi stated on March 6 that this is a crime and a cruel act.
The perception that the poisoning of female students was just the regime's retaliation against women for leading recent anti-government rallies is still the one that is most pervasive.
According to many activists and analysts, four months ago the regime would have decided to literally stifle dissent not with street clashes but with poisonings dispersed throughout the country's girls' schools. The revolt against the hijab, the social campaigns in which girls had drawn attention to the repression of women's rights in Iran by uncovering or cutting their hair, and the attacks on the government and the ayatollah. A deadly grasp that would hold women's bodies prisoner among classroom desks once more.