Iran’s Interior Ministry has announced that more than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the numerous cases of poisoning of female students that have occurred in the country in recent months. Among those arrested, the ministry said, there would be both people who had the sole objective of preventing women from going to school, and people who more generally wanted to “create a climate of fear among female students and the population”. The ministry said that investigations are continuing and that it is trying to understand if those arrested are linked to any terrorist group.
In recent months, about 200 girls and boys from four cities in Iran had experienced health problems after going to school, with symptoms such as nausea, headache, cough, breathing difficulties, palpitations and acute drowsiness; in dozens of cases short stays in hospital were necessary. Local media had speculated that the girls had been poisoned by movements of religious extremists, probably inspired by the policies of the Afghan Taliban, which in recent months have banned girls from going to schools.
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