Iran: Poisoning Hundreds of Students in at Least 16 Schools in 7 Cities

Protest gatherings of families in Ardabil and Divandarreh

The deliberate poisoning of school girls, which resumed after the end of the Nowruz, Iranian New Year, holidays, with more intensity today. The state-run website Shabake Sharq, April 8, wrote: “Chain of poisoning of students continues… The Director General of Security and Law Enforcement Affairs of Ardabil Governorate announced: About 400 students have been taken to the hospital by emergency and are under the supervision of doctors… Before noon today, a number of students from the girls’ schools of Din and Danesh, Efaf, Meraj, Khalaban, Zaker, Dadman, Baharan, Sama and a number of other schools in Ardabil were poisoned with symptoms of nausea and vomiting.

Vice President of Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, was quoted by the state-media Hamshahri, April 8, saying: Today, April 8, we had reports of poisoning of students in two girls’ schools in Haftkel and Ahvaz cities. Khabar Fori state-run website reported today that in Haftkel, students of Hajar High School were poisoned for the second time and 20 of them were taken to the hospital. The students of Parvin Etesami and Bent Al-Hada girls’ schools in Divandareh were targeted by a chemical attack and 15 students were taken to the hospital. Students of Fadak Girls’ School and another school in Naqadeh; and 20 students of Khayyam Girls’ School in Pardis, Tehran province, were affected by toxic gas. Students’ families protested outside schools in Ardabil and in front of the hospital in Divandarreh and chanted anti-regime slogans.

In such circumstances and in the fifth month of these chain crimes, the ridiculous justifications and contradictory statements by the regime’s leaders and security, political and propaganda organs continue. Yesterday, Hamid Kazemi, the head of the “Student Poisoning Fact-Finding Task Force” in the regime’s parliament was quoted by the state-run website Etemad online, April 7, saying: “Some students may do such things out of mischief, and it is necessary to form non-operating defenses in schools to prevent such incidents… And I think that in two weeks we will be able to present a report on this matter to the open floor of the Majlis.”

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said that the aim of the mullahs’ anti-human regime of committing this major and systematic crime is to confront the uprising and take revenge on the girls and women who are in the forefront of the struggle to overthrow this regime. She once again emphasized the need for independent investigations by the international fact-finding mission and the relevant United Nations institutions and immediate action to stop this massive crime.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

April 8, 2023