Iran’s president has ordered an investigation into a series of noxious fume incidents that have sickened hundreds of girls in around 30 schools since November. The situation has prompted officials to suspect that the attacks are targeting women’s education. The affected students have been suffering from headaches, heart palpitations, lethargy, and difficulty moving. Some of them have been hospitalized. The issue was initially dismissed, but officials have now acknowledged the severity of the crisis.
President Ebrahim Raisi has tasked the Interior Ministry to investigate the matter, along with the Health and Intelligence ministries. He also ordered the prompt release of the investigation’s findings to the public.
This incident is unique in Iran as there is no history of religious extremists targeting girls’ education, even during the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to allow women and girls to return to school.
The situation comes at a sensitive time for Iran, which has been facing months of nationwide protests since September, after a young woman died in the custody of the morality police, who arrested her for violating Iran’s Islamic dress code. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency has acknowledged the scope of the incidents, after initially downplaying them. Iran’s prosecutor-general has ordered an investigation, stating that “there are possibilities of deliberate criminal acts.”