Alba Mastromatteo, am696@uakron.edu
In present-day Iran, girls in schools are under attack. There is poison being pumped into their school resulting in about 7,000 girls being poisoned around the country. Many of the girls affected have had to be hospitalized due to this fact. Initially, the government ignored the cries for help from the citizens but soon found that it was a serious problem that must be addressed in the coming months after toxicologists ran tests and found the legitimacy of these allegations. Now, the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) is actively pursuing the suspects and is promising the death penalty when they are discovered. Currently, five people have been arrested for the crime.
Both the people of Iran and the United Nations are admonishing the Iranian government for their slow response to this tragedy as, in the time that they have waited, many girls have continued to suffer. The first documentation of this issue is in November of 2022, but it was not acknowledged until recently by the government. Many human rights groups across the world are protesting the Iranian government’s ineptitude in protecting the girls and the rest of their citizens. Additionally, many Iranian protesters have gone against the government with the chant, “Death to a child killing Regime” (The Iran Primer).
It is a common thought that these poisonings stem from the protests earlier this year that stemmed from Jina Amini’s, more commonly known by her Persian name Mahsa Amini, death. A White House spokeswoman even mentions that if these poisonings are a response to these protests then the UN is well within its rights to intervene. Because over half of the school population is women, this is not only an attack on the Iranian people but the women who have posed a threat to the government through their determination and perseverance. The government, and its avid supporters, are scared of what these women can do against their government as they have banded together once, showing their power as a strong-knit and courageous community, and can do so once again (The Iran Primer).
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