Thousands of cases occur throughout the country, about 1,200 for the authorities, but activist groups speak of 7,000 affected girls. Yesterday there were protests in at least 20 cities: the authorities assure that justice will be done, but they detain those who protest. Protesters compare the leadership of the Islamic Republic to Nigerian extremists Boko Haram for suppressing women’s rights.
Tehran () – A new protest front has opened in Iran, after months of street riots over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish girl, in this case related to the thousands of students poisoned in different parts of the country . Yesterday there were marches and demonstrations in at least 20 cities with anti-government slogans and chants; meanwhile Tehran announced the first arrests, although it would not be those responsible who ended up being the target of the authorities, but the citizens who participated in the demonstrations.
Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi announced that “a certain number of people were arrested in at least five provinces” and that the court “opened an investigation” to clarify the matter. In reality, the videos and testimonies disseminated by dissident websites and pro-opposition media show a massive presence of police and security agents in Tehran and other major centers such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Karaj, Mashhad, Sanandaj Rasht. In Sanandaj, protesters who protested in the streets yesterday against poisonings, on the eve of International Women’s Day, chanted “death to the regime that kills girls.”
In other places, such as Rasht and Isfahan, security forces attacked protesters; In Mashhad, a group of parents displayed banners in Persian comparing the Iranian government to Nigerian extremists Boko Haram, famous for violently suppressing women’s right to education. Protests that certify the distance, already irreconcilable, between the leaders of the Islamic Republic and an important segment of the population that continues to demand justice for the murder of the 22-year-old Kurdish girl at the hands of the morality police for not correctly wearing the hijab. The intervention of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who recognized the problem of poisoning, calling it a “serious and unforgivable crime” and ensuring that those responsible will pay for it before justice, was useless.
The poisonings have been occurring for at least four months, with more than 1,200 cases verified by the authorities, but the real figures could be even higher, up to 7,000 according to activist groups and human rights defenders. Victims present various symptoms, from nausea to temporary paralysis in the most severe cases. At first, the authorities denied the matter, but they radically changed their minds in the last two weeks before the escalation of figures that made it impossible to hide it.
According to the reformist newspaper Etemad, cases were registered in at least 28 of the 31 provinces. Only on March 5, some 350 schools reported cases of poisoning, although the Ministry of the Interior deflates the figures by stating that it is a minuscule amount, 5%, while the rest are “anxiety” attacks that affect students . It is worth mentioning here that “Generation Z” students (born after 1997) are among the “frontline” protagonists of the demonstrations in favor of Mahsa Amini and the fight against compulsory veiling.
The government made the first arrests among those presumed responsible for the poisonings, without explaining their role in the matter or in what capacity they would be involved. Meanwhile, the justice system launched a much broader persecution to identify and arrest those who spread “rumours” about the matter, as in the case of a journalist from Qom -one of the first centers affected-, who was imprisoned over the weekend. for writing on the subject. Finally, the authorities launched investigations against a prominent political scientist, a reformist leader and an actor who criticized the government’s response to the “poisoning saga” on social media.
