Girls, battling poison attacks, defy Iran crackdown

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By Deepa Kaushik

Bengaluru, March 20: Several Iranian schoolgirls have been poisoned in Iran’s main cities. Many schoolgirls have already been hospitalized as a consequence of the poisoning. Although it hasn’t been verified, there may be up to 5,000 possible cases. Fearing these attacks, many parents have pulled their girls out of school. “The first such case where schoolgirl were being poisoned in Irna happened on November 30th, 2022, in the city of Qom. Since then, 91 schools in 20 provinces all over Iraq have reported being the focus of targeted chemical attacks against girls’ schools,” stated a UN expert.

In addition to failing to protect them, the state authorities were also unable to stop subsequent assaults. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, whose ministry oversees the investigations process of such cases, continued to deny that the attacks were deliberate, even on March 1, 2023, he said that 90 per cent of the reported cases could be ascribed to “stress”. The poisoning incidents were similarly described as student attempts to miss exams by state-affiliated media sources.

A journalist who was covering these assaults was also detained in the city of Qom and whose whereabouts are still unknown as of this writing. The social media footage of a mother being brutally beaten in front of her children’s school for no other reason than to demand information was equally shocking.

Since the unrest in September, at least 2,003 women have received reprimands for wearing the hijab improperly, including being summoned to police officials, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). In addition, violence and oppression against women continue to be severe, with at least 15 women being murdered for honor. Women are brutally killed by family members in a practice known as “Honor Killings” because they have “dishonored” the family. According to the HRANA report, this behaviour “violates not only women’s rights but also gravely impairs human rights and the right to life.

Numerous women who engaged in the protests after Mahsa Amini’s death, including women and girls, are still imprisoned, some of whom have already received prison sentences, according to some experts. A number of young women who recently recorded themselves dancing in public while not concealing their hair were apprehended and made to apologize on state television.

These are all clear indications that the Iranian government has a pattern of silencing anyone who tries to expose or put an end to human rights abuses. The quick use of force to detain and imprison peaceful protesters contrasts sharply with the months-long inability to locate and apprehend those responsible for widespread, organized attacks against young women in Iran. These events raise a serious concern about the Human Rights.

Erstwhile, in 2014 there was a surge of acid attacks in and around Isfahan, the central city of Iran. At the time, it was thought that these attacks were committed by religious hardliners who were specifically targeting women’s clothing.

If the suspected poisonings are deliberate acts motivated by a similar motive, it would mark a significant uptick in a nation where the right of girls to an education has never been truly questioned. According to commission member Sharon Kleinbaum, “the United States and like-minded countries must exert pressure on the Iranian governments to fully accept responsibility for halting the poisonings and hold offenders accountable in a way consistent with international law.”