A mysterious phenomenon that started last year in Iran is continuing. On Saturday, at least 60 schoolgirls were poisoned in the town of Haftkel in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, local media reports informed.
A number of school-going girls were poisoned in “five schools in Ardabil in the northwest”. The medical authorities said most victims showed symptoms of anxiety, shortness of breath and headaches.
Similarly in the northwestern town of Urmia, dozens of schoolgirls were admitted to the hospital on Saturday after feeling sick, according to an AFP report.
An official count provided by authorities states that as of March 7, as many as 5,000 students have been affected by such poisonings across 230 establishments, in 25 of the country’s 31 provinces.
A final report by a national fact-finding committee to probe the matter is expected to be released in the upcoming weeks, informed MP Hamidreza Kazemi and the head of the panel.
“We have received reports from various bodies and we are studying the issue in order to present our conclusion to parliament,” said Kazemi.
Hysteria, mass psychosis or conspiracy?
Notably, the Iranian police earlier claimed that schoolgirls may have been prone to hysteria and victim of copycat pranks, involving ‘stink bombs’, in the wave of poison-induced sicknesses.
Saeed Montazer Al-Mahdi, the Iranian police spokesman said the ‘majority’ of the poisonings were ‘not real’ and merely caused by psychological factors that triggered the paranoia of frenzied students.
The detractors of the current regime argue that the poisonings could be an attempt to force the closure of girls’ schools, especially in the backdrop of the Mahsa Amini death protests that started in September last year.
The version of ‘fear and psychosis’ by the Iranian police has been backed by a recent report published in Psychology Today.
Notably, the first case of schoolgirls poisoning was reported in November last year when as many as 18 girls were admitted to a hospital in the city of Qom.
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has termed the poisoning of girl students as an “unforgivable” crime.
“Authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. This is an unforgivable crime… the perpetrators of this crime should be severely punished,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media.
(With inputs from agencies)
