The United Nations education and cultural agency UNESCO has called for an investigation into the suspected poisoning of schoolchildren in Iran as university students gathered to protest against the outbreak of a wave of mysterious illness that has resulted in scores of people being hospitalized across the country.
Videos and photos published on social media on March 8 showed students at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, and AmirKabir University of Technology staging on-campus protests as the government's slow response to the crisis fuels speculation over what could have caused more than 5,000 students, mainly girls, to have fallen ill.
Some reports indicated that security forces at Allameh Tabatabai University sparked a conflict with the students.
The United Students Telegram channel released images of the altercation, which show a security officer at Allameh Tabatabai University confiscating signs with the slogan "Women, Life, Freedom" from students and then kicking them.
The first report of suspected mass illness came in Qom in November, when 18 schoolgirls were taken to a hospital after complaining of symptoms that included nausea, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations, and numbness and pain in their hands or legs.
Since then, hundreds of cases have occurred and it remains unclear what might be causing the illnesses, though some of those affected have said they smelled chlorine or cleaning agents, while others said they thought they smelled tangerines in the air.
No one has claimed responsibility for the wave of illnesses that some officials -- including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- have characterized as "poisonings."
UNESCO said it “urges thorough investigations and immediate actions to protect schools and facilitate the return of affected students.”
“I am deeply concerned about the reported poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran over the past three months. This is a violation of their right to safe education,” UNESCO head Audrey Azoulay added.
The muted response by the authorities has prompted some to accuse the government of purposely "poisoning" students, who have been at the forefront of months of anti-government protests -- the biggest threat to the Islamic leadership since the 1979 revolution.
The Coordinating Council of Teachers Syndicates (CCTS) announced on March 7 that the health condition of student Asra Abbasnejad in the western Iranian city of Divandarreh in Kurdistan Province is deteriorating.
An unspecified number of arrests had been made in five provinces in connection with the incidents but few details have been made public.
Journalist Ali Purtabatabaei, who covered the poisonings for the Qom News website as well as on social media and was critical of the response to the crisis by authorities in the holy city of Qom, was arrested on March 5. The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders on March 8 called for his release.
⚡️🇮🇷: RSF condemns last weekend’s arrest of Iranian journalist Ali Pourtabatabaei, one of the first journalist to investigate reports about the mysterious wave of schoolgirl poisonings in #Iran. He must be released at once, RSF says.👇https://t.co/SJjaXiAeq9
— RSF (@RSF_inter) March 8, 2023
Iran has been roiled by unrest since the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a hijab, or head scarf, improperly.
The government has held several counterrallies to try to quell the dissent, but people continue to take to the streets across the country, as universities and schools have become leading venues for clashes between protesters and the authorities.
Security forces have also launched a series of raids on schools across the country, violently arresting students, especially female students, who have defiantly taken off their hijabs in protest.