Iran: Teachers protest over suspected poisonings of thousands of schoolgirls

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian teachers protested Tuesday over suspected poisonings targeting schoolgirls, as a prominent lawmaker and an activist group put the number of those reporting symptoms into the thousands across hundreds of schools.

The new figures dramatically escalate the ongoing crisis now gripping the highest levels of Iran’s theocracy, already under pressure after months of demonstrations following the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

Meanwhile, prosecutors started filing criminal charges against journalists, activists and others over their comments on the still-unsolved incidents that began in November. Officials also again announced arrests of unnamed suspects over the occurrences, with little detail, after withdrawing similar earlier claims.

These new incidents at schools threaten to again stoke public anger as parents fear for their children’s safety. It remains unclear who may be behind the suspected attacks and what chemicals — if any — have been used.

“The poisonings are ... forcing a domestic conversation along Iran’s deep social divides between religious conservative Iranians and ... liberal Iranians,” riskintelligence firm the RANE Network said in an analysis. “If the poisonings continue, they will become another trigger of disruptive unrest against the government, regardless of whether the government is actually behind them or not.”

One new toll came from Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that also monitored the recent protests over Amini’s death. Relying on official reports and activists, the group said at least 290 suspected school poisonings have happened over recent months, with at least 7,060 students claiming to be affected.

At least 99 cities and 28 of Iran’s 31 provinces have been affected in the crisis. Tehran province has seen the most suspected incidents with 33 cases, followed by Qom province, where the crisis began in November.