The Iranian government has arrested more than 100 people for their alleged responsibility in the poisonings of thousands of girls in female educational centers in the country. The Iranian authorities have attributed these attacks to “enemies” of the country and are investigating the connection to the opposition group Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK). However, the Interior Ministry has also claimed that some of the cases were provoked by “pranks” with stink bombs by people who wanted to shut down classes influenced by the “psychological atmosphere.” Since the end of November 2022, around 5,000 female students in 230 schools in 25 Iranian provinces have been poisoned, with symptoms including throat irritation, headaches, and breathing difficulties.
Popular discontent is growing, especially among families, at the ineffectiveness of the authorities in resolving these attacks that seem destined to cripple girls’ education. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has called these attacks an “unforgivable crime” and said that, if proven deliberate, the culprits should “receive the ultimate punishment,” which in the country is the death penalty. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has also attributed the poisonings to “enemies” of the nation.
In Iran, female education has not been questioned in the 43 years of the Islamic Republic’s existence, and some families link the poisonings to the feminist protests of recent months, which subsided after a heavy state crackdown. Female students in schools and high schools took part in these protests, removing their veils, shouting “woman, life, freedom,” and making gestures of contempt at portraits of Khamenei and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.