The Interior Ministry of Iran Saturday announced that over 100 people have been arrested across Iran in connection with the chemical attacks on thousands of school girls. According to a statement issued by the Interior Ministry, the poisonings were carried out with the intention of “shutting down classrooms” and trying to “create fear and horror among people and students.”

Chemical attacks primarily targeting female students have taken place in Iranian schools since November 2022, the first resulting in 18 students from in the Nour Technical School being hospitalised. Many of the attacks have caused students to experience breathing difficulties, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue, and at least one student died as a result of the attack. Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), commented on the attacks:

The deliberate poisoning of school girls in Iran is exposing the fanatical, lawless and violent mentality that is resurfacing under this unaccountable government and trying to force the entire country, especially women, backward. . . This is an act of terrorism, and the Islamic Republic’s failure to take it seriously for months raises serious questions regarding government complicity with groups that have the organisational capacity to carry out such major attacks.

The Interior Ministry since announced that authorities have identified and arrested over potential suspects with “hostile motives” in connection to the attacks, and inquiries are to be made into possible involvement of terrorist organisations such as Mujahedin Khalq Organisation.

The European Parliament is set to discuss the chemical attacks next Wednesday, said Hannah Neumann, German Member of the European Parliament. Commenting on the future discussions, Neumann stated that it would provide “another important opportunity to raise awareness about the repression in the country—and the brave opposition to it.”