Is the Iranian regime following the Taliban in Afghanistan by trying to suppress girls from going to school? It would appear to be so. The regime is thought to be poisoning school girls in retaliation for their organizing and participating in anti-regime protests. Iranian authorities say they are investigating the poisonings. That’s the fox guarding the hen house.

Iranian authorities have been downplaying the poisonings up until recently. Hundreds of school girls have been poisoned since last November, perhaps with toxic gas. It looks like the regime is trying to intimidate the girls into staying home and not pursuing education. Only in recent days have officials been willing to state the obvious – the protests are led by women and girls and the regime is being rocked by them. Intimidation is a go-to punishment for the regime.

The Parliament’s news agency, Khane Mellat, MP Alireza Monadi said that an investigation shows that nitrogen gas appeared during testing at the schools. Local media reports show that poisonings have been going on for months. Dozens of schools have been involved in many cities. The gas attacks often cause the girls to be taken to the hospital. Thankfully, no deaths have been reported yet. Unfortunately, Iran’s police chief, Ahmad Reza Raan, said there have been no arrests.

Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi said poisoning is happening in the holy city of Qom and they are not accidental. Panahi thinks it is being done to shut down schools.

“Our priority is to find the origin of the poisoning of the students, and until then, we will not judge whether it was intentional or unintentional,” he said in an interview with the semiofficial ISNA news agency.

But Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi said Sunday the poisoning of schoolgirls in the holy city of Qom — one of Iran’s larger cities south of Tehran — and the western city of Borujerd, was not accidental and was down to people wanting to shut girls’ schools.

“What is clear is that both in Qom and Borujerd, it is a deliberate issue,” he said at a news conference, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. “The poisoning of students of Qom was intentional and caused by available chemical compounds. Some people wanted all schools to be closed, especially girls’ schools.”

Panahi added that the poisoning was due to a chemical compound that has not yet been identified, according to IRIB. “The poisoning caused to the students was very mild, and did not cause any complications to anyone,” he was reported as saying. “They had symptoms of lethargy and weakness for several hours.”

“It has been revealed that the chemical compounds used to poison students are not war chemicals … the poisoned students do not need aggressive treatment and a large percentage of the chemical agents used are treatable.”

A special committee had been appointed to investigate the poisonings, and toxicology experts had been consulted. Who is going to trust them, though, when the regime is known for punishing its critics? Even Panahi, while bravely speaking out, ends up trying to thread the needle.

Schools in at least 10 to 15 cities have been struggling to cope with poisoned students. Poisoning cases were reported in 30 schools across the country. Once or twice may be an accident but in 30 schools? That’s no mistake or accident. That’s deliberate and it’s retaliation, pure and simple. This is what the mullahs and their henchmen do. They’ve been trying to shut down anti-regime protests since they began after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young woman, who was arrested by the morality police for improperly wearing her headscarf. She was beaten and died from injuries sustained at the hands of regime thugs.

The first poisoning took place on 30 November, when 18 students from the Nour Technical School in the religious city of Qom were taken to hospital.

Since then, more than 10 girls’ schools have been targeted in the surrounding province.

At least 194 girls are reported to have been poisoned in the past week at four schools in the city of Borujerd, in the western province of Lorestan.

And on Tuesday another 37 students were poisoned at the Khayyam Girls’ School in Pardis, near the capital Tehran.

The poisoned girls have reported the smell of tangerine or rotten fish before falling ill.

Earlier this month, at least 100 people protested outside the governor’s office in Qom.

On Tuesday, the most recent attacks on school girls occurred. Dozens were admitted to the hospital after a mysterious poisoning. Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported over the past three months among schoolgirls.

I won’t hold my breath for anything to come of the investigations. So to speak.