The series of poison gas attacks on Iranian schools continues. There is no official explanation, experts suspect the regime is behind it.
Schools in Iran were again attacked with poison gas on Sunday. At a school in the northern city of Bābolsar, children were attacked with chemical gas, the human rights alliance 1500tasvir quoted an alleged eyewitness account as saying. Some of them had to be taken to a hospital, but it was claimed that one of the children had triggered a fire extinguisher.
A school in Ardabil, a major city in northwestern Iran, was also the target of such an attack on the same day, 1500tasvir reports. The school has been attacked several times. A school in Tehran and one in Karaj, about 40 kilometers west of Tehran, were also among the schools attacked, reports 1500tasvir.
Iran expert: Attacks serve to intimidate
The day before, in the city of Shahin Shahar in the Isfahan region, people had gathered in front of the education administration building to protest against the systematic poisoning of schoolgirls that had been going on for months. Read more about the protest in Iran here. Political scientist and Iran expert Gilda Sahebi tweeted that the poison gas attacks had only one goal: “to intimidate parents and girls into giving up their resistance.” It should be achieved that they never protest again and submit to the Islamic Republic. “That will never happen,” Sahebi is certain.
Officially, no one responsible for the poison gas attacks has been found. Activists and journalists suspect the Iranian regime, partly because of the lack of information, or suspect that it supports the perpetrators.
Laboratory samples sent abroad
1500tasvir also announced on Sunday that it had succeeded in sending laboratory samples from schoolchildren who were victims of poison gas attacks from Iran to experts abroad. “We hope that the samples will be useful and the results of the tests will be known soon,” the network wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the repressions against people and especially women in Iran are increasing. The regime announced on Sunday that it had closed more than 150 shops because the shops had violated the rules on compulsory headscarves. The laws have recently been tightened further: companies that allow a woman to take off her headscarf are now being punished by the regime. In addition, people who call for people to take off the headscarf should be punished from now on. Video surveillance helps the regime enforce these misogynist laws.
