Iranian regime blamed for poisoning of hundreds of Iranian schoolgirls, as gender-based attacks continue

As more poisonings of schoolgirls are reported in Iran, human rights activists and journalists tell CBC News the regime in Tehran is to blame for what they say is just another form of gender-based attacks in the country.

Close to 1,000 schoolgirls have reportedly been poisoned in Iran. Though regime officials initially dismissed the attacks, several have now admitted that they are intentional. But three months after the first reported attack, no arrests have been made in connection with the poisonings, which activists suggest are reprisals for the students' participation in nationwide protests that have been shaking the country.

The regime's health minister says students have experienced "mild symptoms." Media reports show the affected students have suffered difficulty breathing, severe coughing, nausea and muscle weakness. Many have been hospitalized.

It's still unclear what type of toxic gas is being used in the attacks and regime officials have given conflicting reports. The earliest known poisoning occurred in the religious city of Qom on Nov. 30, 2022. In early December, an independent activist group called Youth of Qom was among the first to cast blame on the regime for what it called an act of "biological terror."

Since then, the poison attacks have occurred in dozens of high schools in several cities across four different provinces. Videos on social media and reports by activists suggest 20 schools in three cities were targeted on Wednesday alone.

A video shared with prominent Iranian American women's rights activist Masih Alinejad and which she published on social media Wednesday, showed the mother of a girl who was poisoned being attacked in broad daylight by plainclothes security forces in Tehran.

Alinejad said the people who took the video told her the woman was attacked after demanding answers about what happened from the school's authorities. In the video, the woman was surrounded by a crowd of people as a man reached for her head and yanked her by the hair. 

Witnesses told Alinejad that the woman was forced into a car in front of the school in the west of Tehran and taken away.

Alinejad told CBC News that she believes the Islamic Republic is taking revenge on the young girls who were at the forefront of anti-regime protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman.

Amini's family says she was beaten to death last September by the regime's police patrol unit that enforces its Islamic dress codes after she was arrested for wearing her hijab improperly.

At the peak of anti-regime protests, videos posted online showed schoolgirls chanting slogans, waving the mandated hijab in the air defiantly and ​​tearing pictures of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

Alinejad says many of the children who were poisoned told her they were scared to get into an ambulance or take medication offered to them because they were afraid they would be killed. 

"The students know very well that the attack on the schoolgirls is intentional and revenge by the Islamic Republic against the brave women who reject the forced hijab," Alinejad told CBC News.

Human rights organizations like Amnesty International say the regime has targeted schools and killed dozens of children in the wake of the protests.