Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Monday the sequence of suspected poisoning of schoolgirls throughout the nation.
Khamenei stated that if the poisonings are confirmed to be deliberate the culprits must be sentenced to dying for committing an “unforgivable crime.”
It was the primary time Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the ultimate say on all issues of state, has spoken publicly concerning the suspected poisonings, which started late final yr and have sickened tons of of youngsters.
Iranian officers solely acknowledged them in latest weeks and have supplied no particulars on who could also be behind the assaults or what chemical substances – if any – have been used.
Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no historical past of concentrating on ladies’s schooling.
“If the poisoning of students is proven, those behind this crime should be sentenced to capital punishment and there will be no amnesty for them,” Khamenei stated, in response to the state-run IRNA news company.
Authorities have acknowledged suspected assaults at greater than 50 colleges throughout 21 of Iran’s 30 provinces since November.
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi stated over the weekend that “suspicious samples” had been gathered by investigators, with out elaborating.
He referred to as on the general public to stay calm and accused unnamed enemies of inciting worry to undermine the Islamic Republic.
Vahidi stated at the least 52 colleges had been affected by suspected poisonings, whereas Iranian media studies have put the variety of colleges at over 60. At least one boy’s college reportedly has been affected.
Videos of upset dad and mom and schoolgirls in emergency rooms with IVs of their arms have flooded social media.
Iran has imposed stringent restrictions on impartial media for the reason that outbreak of nationwide protests in September, making it tough to find out the character and scope of the suspected poisonings.
On Monday, Iranian media reported that authorities arrested a Qom-based journalist, Ali Pourtabatabaei, who had been repeatedly reporting on the suspected poisonings.
The conservative Kayhan newspaper in an editorial had referred to as for the arrest of newspaper publishers who printed articles on the disaster crucial of Iran’s theocracy.
The protests have been sparked by the dying of a younger lady who had been detained by morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s strict gown code.
Conservatives in Iran have been identified to assault ladies they understand as dressing immodestly in public. But even on the top of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, ladies and ladies continued attending colleges and universities.
The youngsters affected by the poisonings have reportedly complained of complications, coronary heart palpitations, feeling torpid, or in any other case unable to maneuver. Some described smelling tangerines, chlorine, or cleansing brokers.
Reports recommend at the least 400 schoolchildren have fallen ailing since November. Vahidi, the inside minister, stated in his assertion that two ladies stay within the hospital due to underlying persistent circumstances. There have been no reported fatalities.
As extra assaults have been reported Sunday, movies have been posted on social media exhibiting youngsters complaining about ache within the legs, stomach and dizziness. State media have primarily referred to those as “hysteric reactions.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) documented an identical phenomenon in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012, when tons of of women throughout the nation complained of unusual smells and poisoning.
No proof was discovered to help the suspicions, and the WHO stated it gave the impression to be “mass psychogenic illnesses.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
