Dozens of schoolgirls in Iran are poisoned mysteriously.

 

Parents and ambulances arrive at a school in Iran. BBC.

Dozens of schoolgirls in Iran are suffering from poisoning symptoms. BBC. The incidents have occurred at 24 schools across the country with more than 1000 girls suffering from symptoms, including nausea, dizziness, fatigue and respiratory problems. It is unclear who is responsible for the poisonings or if they are even deliberate. This hasn't stopped speculation that it could have been retribution from the government for anti-government protests that rocked the country last year. It is also unclear what chemical is causing the problems.

My Comment:

Disturbing story out of Iran. It seems likely that someone is targeting girls schools in the country, but why and to what end? Poisoning school girls is a line that very few people would cost and given how many schools have been targeted by this, it seems likely that this was an organized plot. 

I think we can probably rule out an accident. I don't see this happening on this large of a scale. There could be chemical problems at a few places but at 24 different schools? The only thing I could think of that would explain that is some kind of mass hysteria which is possible but not very likely. 

I also don't think Iran would poison their own schoolgirls. That makes very little sense since Iran already has no problems with throwing people into prison or even killing them. Why would they poison these schools to stop the protests (which haven't been making the news anymore regardless) when they could just shut the schools down directly? It doesn't make much sense, but then again, not much in Iran does. 

There are other suspects of course. I am sure that Iran will blame Israel and the United States, but that also doesn't seem very likely either. Their main issues with Iran is the nuclear weapons program and though this might re-inflame the anti-government protests, I don't see how it actually stops the nuclear weapons programs. I also can't see Israel poisoning children. I wish I could say the same thing abut the United States, but given our current leadership...

My guess would be ISIS though. ISIS is active in Iran and has conducted attacks there before. They also have some experience with chemical weapons. They are also organized to pull off these kinds of attacks and are totally against both Shia Islam and educating young girls. The only thing that makes me question it is that I don't think they are powerful enough to pull off such a large attack. 

What I really don't understand is why these attacks haven't killed anyone. We don't know what chemical they are using to pull these attacks off, but it must be very weak if nobody has died yet. It might not be from a lack of trying but either way, whoever is responsible for this isn't exactly being very competent about this...