By Athena Papakosta

It is a wave of unexplained poisonings that has engulfed Iran since last November. Schoolgirls go to school, sit at their desks and the lesson begins. Until an inexplicable, penetrating smell fills the atmosphere and minutes later ambulances appear in the courtyard to pick them up.

It remains unknown what is the cause or who is responsible for these mass poisonings. The first strike was registered at the end of November in the holy Shiite city of Qom and to this day there is no official response, neither from the Iranian regime nor from the scientific community. Poisoning incidents have now been reported in 21 of Iran’s total of 30 provinces and all in girls’ schools.

Understandably, parents, especially parents of girls, do not hide their fear, anger or rage. But the country’s regime for at least 12 weeks preferred a policy of contradictory statements, and when the matter attracted the attention of the Western Media then, the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raishi, announced an investigation into the incidents. But first he hastened to denounce the “terrorism of the enemy’s Media”.

So far – and according to the country’s interior minister – investigators have recovered “suspicious” samples while 52 schools have been affected while Iranian Media puts the total number at least 60.

Social Media has been filled with images of parents standing by their children’s sides in hospitals, holding their hands tightly. In the streets of the country a new cycle of protests opens with citizens shouting that they do not want a regime that is trying to kill their children.

These attacks raise fears that girls are being targeted simply for going to school. However, education in the country is compulsory for everyone and never since 1974 and the Islamic Revolution has this right been questioned, while at the same time in Iran’s Universities the majority of students today are… female.

But the country looks like a boiling cauldron. Last September, a 22-year-old girl of Kurdish origin was arrested by the moral police, fell into a coma and never woke up. She was called Mahsha Amini and her death sparked a wave of mass protests involving women in the vanguard claiming equality and freedom, burning their headscarves and cutting their hair. According to Non-Governmental Organizations at least 530 people are killed and 19,700 arrested, among them about 100 journalists.

The state media broadcasts the issue but aligns itself with the regime of the Islamic Republic and focuses on the fact that the enemies of the regime are behind the incidents of mass poisoning. A stance which is faithfully and firmly followed as they had maintained the same line during the mass mobilizations of last autumn.

The West expresses its concern and calls for an international investigation. Analena Burbock, the German foreign minister, emphasized that all incidents must be investigated, while Washington is on the same wavelength with John Kirby, the representative of the American National Security Council, emphasizing that “little girls who go to school should they only worry about their studies and not about the safety of their own lives.” However, Iran’s foreign ministry reacted by referring to crocodile tears.