In Iran, one hundred people have been arrested by schoolgirls across the country in connection with symptoms of drunkenness since November. Television broadcast interviews with detainees in which they admitted their intention to change their school life (its tone reminiscent of the old days). forced confessions common in the Islamic Republic, according to Amnesty International).
The regime attributed the incident to: “harmless malodorous substances” and explained how “The Enemy’s Conspiracy”. However, experts are wary of Iran’s opaque investigation and demand independent analysis of cases.
Female students and university students are leading the protests that started in September in Iran. Mahsa AminiA young Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly wearing the wrong veil.
hundreds of cases
History of the first news November 2022in the city Annual. Since then, hundreds of cases have been reported across the country, according to a press count. Mahmud Azimaee, a statistician working in Canada. The vast majority are underage girls. Symptoms include: fatigue, confusion, sore throat, nausea, and headache. In some cases, the discomfort occurs after the perception of odors, but the odors may be different from normal. mandarin also rotten fish.
The regime acknowledged the events in 52 schools and said: 28 people were hospitalized more than two days. Two people have died, but the official version is that they have ongoing illnesses.
Iran did not release any official data, and the doctors who visited the students did not make any statements. A Expert source residing in Iran states that the first tests were carried out using methods that do not allow the detection of toxic substances. Further more detailed testing is expected in the coming weeks.
alastair strawA chemical weapons specialist from the University of Bristol was able to see blood tests attributed to the affected students and found “nothing abnormal”. However, he warns, “these routine analyzes do not exclude poisoning.” A complete toxicological analysis is needed on a representative number of cases”.
The variety of scents makes it impossible to identify a particular poison, he wrote. Dan Kaszeta, toxicologist at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He also added that “these symptoms are common to thousands of different substances.”
A reasonable candidate chloramineaccording to this Keith B Ward, a chemist at George Mason University who advised Human Rights Watch on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Chloramine is easily produced by mixing common cleaning products and causes some reported symptoms (but not others). Ward excludes nerve gases and mustard gas, as they cause other symptoms.
Extreme stress?
Hay and Kaszeta note that another explanation cannot be ruled out: mass psychogenic illness. This is a group anxiety occurs in response to the perception of danger. “There are previous cases where there was fear of poisoning. […] It caused fainting, nausea, and hyperventilation,” she says. John Drury, a psychologist, collective behavior expert at the University of Sussex. This phenomenon, thought to particularly affect girls, may be a possible explanation for similar cases in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
According to Kaszeta, poisoning is a trauma experienced by Iranian society since the war with Iraq. chemical weapons bombardment. During the recent protests, fears that the regime would use poison to suppress the protests were common. In addition, young girls face harsh repression, including arrests and deaths.
“It is dangerous and misleading to put forward the hypothesis of mass psychogenic illness without excluding physical causes first,” he replies. Orchid BehruzanPhD and medical anthropologist from the London School of Oriental and African Studies. “Independent research is needed to access health data that is often locked in Iran,” he says.
A full investigation According to the experts consulted, it should include interviews with victims, toxicological analyses, epidemiological studies and clinical histories, and sampling from the scene. Ward urges doctors to be able to speak freely, and Hay recommends involving victim communities to ensure confidence in the results.
Iran may seek assistance from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) but according to a source from the entity there is no record of him doing it so far. “I’m afraid the regime will be content with putting some people on national television to admit that they are working for their enemies,” he says. Said GolkarPolitical scientist at the University of Tennessee.
Waiting for the regime to present evidence of a conspiracy, many experts are sounding the alarm. “These attacks cannot happen without government approval,” he says. Encieh Erfani, An Iranian physicist who resigned from his post to protest the repression. “Some of the Islamic Republic security services might have concluded that Iranian students should be punished,” Golkar says. “There are people in the regime who think that girls should not be educated and might want to take matters into their own hands,” he concludes. ali ansarHistorian at Saint Andrew’s University.