Kat Eghdamian: Iranian schoolgirls need support, not gaslighting

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has asked ministers of intelligence and interior to follow up on schoolgirl poisonings, describing them as 'the enemy’s conspiracy to create fear and despair in the people'. Photo / 123rf, File

OPINION

Imagine you are a teenage girl, studying at school, feeling safe and happy with your friends. Suddenly you sense a strange smell.

Without warning, you feel tight in your chest and you struggle to breathe. Your legs stop working and you collapse to the floor. There are medics, parents screaming, and teachers rushing you outside. You pass out and wake up in a hospital bed with no idea what happened. You need assistance to breathe. Looking around, you see you are not alone. The same friends you were laughing with at school earlier are lying in hospital beds next to you, also gasping for air.

Now imagine that on the other side of the world, people are writing about you, your friends, and what just happened. They say it’s all in your head - that nothing made you sick; you were just panicking. There was no real substance, but a feeling. Your mind has made you feel this way, they said. This is typical of girls, they said.

Activists at a demonstration to mark International Women's Day in London hold placards reading 'Woman, Life, Freedom' with portraits of women killed in Iran. AP Photo / Kin Cheung

This is the situation for more than 7000 Iranian schoolgirls this month who have been subjected to a series of chemical attacks across multiple provinces - the latest in decades-long systematic oppression of women and girls in the country and a recent attempt by state authorities to quell anti-government protests. In response, articles have been published arguing that the victims are exhibiting signs of a “collective stress response based on a belief”, rather than showing real symptoms based on “any organic illness”.

In September 2022, the killing of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Jina Amini sparked the first women-led revolution, and it has since become glaringly obvious that very few non-Iranians understand the realities of the Islamic Republic. But worse than a lack of understanding or even apathy, there appears to be a desire by some to make statements despite how harmful they are, having little understanding of the oppressive state in which Iranians live, which has violated fundamental human rights for decades.

Recent articles published fit this pattern in relation to these attacks. Some have been retracted for misinformation while others remain up but are heavily edited or amended. One piece clarified that psychogenic illnesses still means people are genuinely suffering, but goes on to confidently diminish the realities of the actual attacks.

The first concern raised by such efforts is related to facts. The second concern, of which Iranians within Iran and abroad are perplexed by, is related to intention. What has actually happened and what narratives help to serve and support the schoolgirls in question?

Let’s begin with the facts. The attacks began in the city of Qom in November 2022 and soon spread across Iran. The regime denied them at first before conceding and blaming them on ‘foreign agents and enemies’. After months of protests and rallies by concerned parents and teachers, the regime finally announced that these attacks were intentionally undertaken with the aim of banning girls from education. Over 100 people have been arrested to date for allegedly being connected to the poisonings.

Parents continue to protest for the protection and safety of their children and many are being violently arrested for their peaceful demonstrations. Eyewitnesses have also reported that members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have disrupted victims’ treatment, seizing test results and intimidating medical staff. While UNESCO, human rights groups, and Iranian human rights lawyers have called for an investigation, at the time of writing, the attacks continue to be reported.

.@UNESCO urges thorough investigations and immediate actions to protect schools and facilitate the return of affected students in Iran, to their safe and healthy classrooms.#CSW67 #IWD2023 pic.twitter.com/PsG1p5hE4l

— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) March 8, 2023

To be clear, the Islamic Republic confirmed that a number of students were hospitalised due to poisoning “with an inhalation stimulator”. No one within the country is questioning whether the poisonings have taken place but what the substances are and who is responsible.

There are samples, positive tests, lab evaluations - all pointing to multiple types of stimulants. And the impacts have been confirmed: coughing, shortness of breath, heartache, weakness, and fainting.

The most common symptom reported by victims is muscle weakness, indicating the use of nerve gas, which can deposit and persist in fat tissues and damage organs far beyond the initial recovery. At least one student to date has reportedly died.

IDr Kat Eghdamian. Photo / Supplied

Some of the harmful opinions that have been published are based only on speculation. The authors have seemingly not travelled to Iran, spoken to victims, examined substances, or evaluated medical reports. One article states that the views are based on having “studied Islamic schoolgirls for years”. Aside from the fact that anyone who knows Iran, knows it is a religiously diverse country, one must ask what the ethical and moral purpose is behind such articles.

It is deeply troubling for women and girls in Iran to be both terrorised by their oppressors and also gaslighted by people outside Iran.

We can ask who benefits from such acts, but most importantly, we know who suffers.

- Dr Kat Eghdamian is an international human rights expert and writer.