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Hundreds of young girls in the holy city of Qom in Iran were poisoned with the aim of shutting down schools for them, state media IRNA reported.

Confirming the report, Iranian deputy minister on Sunday said that “some people” were poisoning schoolgirls to prevent them from continuing their studies, as per AFP.

Representational Image/AFP

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Authorities confirm “poisoning”

Younes Panahi on Sunday said that poisoning in Qom and other cities have been “intentional”, adding, “It was found that some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed.”

“It has been revealed that the chemical compounds used to poison students are not war chemicals, and the poisoned students do not need aggressive treatment, and a large percentage of the chemical agents used are treatable,” he said at a press conference.   

Earlier, Youssef Nouri, the minister of education, called the reports about the poisoning of female students “rumors”, claiming that the students who were admitted to the hospital had “underlying diseases.” However, the health and education department on Sunday confirmed that at least 50 students of a high school in Borjerd Western Iran were poisoned.Cases being reported since last November

Such cases have been in reports since last November when hundreds of cases of respiratory poisoning were reported among schoolgirls mainly in Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospital treatment. But, there have been no arrests linked to the poisonings so far.

On February 14, parents of students who had been ill had gathered outside the city’s governorate to “demand an explanation” from the authorities, IRNA reported.

The next day government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said the intelligence and education ministries were trying to find the cause of the poisonings.

Last week, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri ordered a judicial probe into the incidents.

Representational Image/AFP

Development comes as massive protests rock Iran

The poisonings come as Iran has been rocked by protests since the December 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini for an alleged violation of country’s strict dress code for women.  

Representational Image/AFP

Since December 2022, the country has been witnessing a massive protest against the government over the strict implementation of hijab on women. Hundreds of teenage schoolgirls had also joined the antigovernment protests last year, and many removed their hijabs in protest. The authorities detained several protestors, while dozens of people were reported dead due to the clash with authorities during the protest.

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