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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran president acts over mystery schoolgirl poisonings
2023-03-02
[AlAhram] Iran's president stepped in after more than 100 students were hospitalised Wednesday, the latest in a spate of poisonings at girls' schools that has gripped the country.

The president's website said Ebrahim Raisi had assigned Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to provide "continuous information on the results of the investigation" into the attacks.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls in what one government official said could be an attempt to force the closure of girls' schools in the Islamic republic.

At least 10 girls' schools were targeted in the latest suspected attacks on Wednesday, seven in the northwestern city of Ardabil and three in the capital, media reports said.

The incidents in Ardabil forced the hospitalisation of 108 students, all of whom were in stable, pH balanced condition, said Tasnim news agency, which also reported poisonings at three schools in Tehran.

Citing parents, Fars news agency said students at one high school in the capital's western neighbourhood of Tehransar had been exposed to a toxic spray. It did not elaborate.

President Raisi's website said he had appointed Vahidi in an effort to "allay the concerns of the families" of the students affected.

Vahidi held a presser at which he debunked earlier reports from Fars on Wednesday that security forces had detained three people in the first reported arrests over the wave of suspected poisonings.

"There are various reports that are completely false," he told journalists, also saying that reports of the detection of a specific chemical substance being used in attacks were incorrect.

Parliament's website had said health ministry tests on a substance found at the schools in the holy city of Qom, where 800 students were affected, had detected traces of nitrogen, which is mainly used in fertilisers.

Since the outbreak of the mysterious poisonings in November, almost 1,200 students have required hospital treatment for breathing difficulties, a politician said Wednesday.

Apart from Qom south of Tehran, 400 were affected in the western city of Borujerd, said Zahra Sheikhi, spokesperson for parliament's health committee.

The poisonings have provoked a wave of anger across the country, with critics denouncing official silence in the face of the growing number of schools reportedly being targeted.

On Sunday the deputy health minister, Younes Panahi, said some people had been poisoned in Qom with the aim of shutting down education for girls.

Activists have compared those responsible for the attacks on schools to the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
in Afghanistan and Boko Haram
...Nigeerian Islamist group, formerly paying homage to al-Qaeda, then, when the money ran out, to the Islamic State, and headed by nutcase Abu Bakr Shekau. Once he exploded in a gunfight with ISWAP, many in the group surrendered to the govt and others went with their new overlords. The remainder are a shell of their former selves, stmbling glassy-eyed and lonely through the Sambisa Forest and the soothing waters of Lake Chad, asking themselves What is truth?, or maybe just I wonder what's for dinner? I hope it's not rhinocerous again! ...
in the Sahel, groups which oppose education for girls.
Posted by:trailing wife

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