Mar 8: Critical Threats- Poisoning of Iranian girls at school
Thread published on March 5, 2023
Critical Threats- The poisoning of Iranian school girls
Officials have blamed the poisonings on foreign actors. Others have suggested the attacks were the work of domestic groups who either aimed to punish girls sympathetic to the Mahsa Amini movement or sought to discourage girls from going to school.
It's unclear why--if foreign actors are indeed behind ongoing poisonings--the regime has not deployed the surveillance and security capabilities that it used to violently suppress protests during the Mahsa Amini movement to protect Iranian girls.
It’s also unclear why a foreign organization able to conduct complex, countrywide operations like this would risk agents and networks to make schoolgirls ill.
Many of these schools have security cameras, too. One girl (who experienced poisoning symptoms on two separate occasions) told the @BBC that her principal said the school’s CCTV had been “down for a week” when asked about a possible investigation.
Iran probes poisoning of almost 700 schoolgirls - BBC News
Many Iranians believe the toxic gas poisonings are a deliberate attempt to force schools to close.
Other girls reported being told to immediately return to class following a reported attack (those who were not experiencing symptoms), an almost unimaginable response in most countries.
Some students reported seeing Basij members entering the facility before reported poisonings. CTP previously assessed that the regime is tolerating the country-wide campaign against Iranian school girls and those responsible for the attacks.
Footage shows Iranian plainclothes officers violently forcing two female students into a car at an impacted school today, one of whom is shown crying out for her mother.
It’s difficult to say which chemical agent students are describing. A doctor who is treating impacted students suggested the chemical may be a weak organophosphate agent.
A doctor in a #Tehran ICU observed that the compounds used to poison students were "mixed gases" that aren’t available to ordinary people in a recent interview.
At the very least, the #IslamicRepublic has de-prioritized protecting some of the most vulnerable segments of its people, which is consistent with its egregious treatment of Iranian girls in recent months.
None of this is, unfortunately, anomalous. The Islamic Republic has killed children—one of whom was 9 years old—in its violent suppression of ongoing unrest and it continues to brutally suppress girls whom it suspects might hold anti-regime views.
