Good morning. It started three months ago, when girls in the Iranian city of Qom reported a strange smell of tangerines at their school. Some began to experience trouble breathing, nausea, and numbness. Eighteen of them were taken to hospital. They appeared to have been poisoned with toxic gas.
Today, the number of girls with symptoms in similar circumstances stands at more than 1,000 in 15 cities. Last week, as dozens more schoolgirls were admitted to hospital, the Iranian government acknowledged the events for the first time.
Many say that the suspected attacks are part of an extremist response – perhaps with tacit state endorsement – to the protests led by women and girls that have convulsed Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
But there are also suggestions that some of the cases may be evidence of mass sociogenic illness – symptoms without a biomedical cause – stemming from the repression of schoolgirls who have played a leading role in that movement. And with teenagers systematically targeted by the security services for their part in the protests, there were new protests in Tehran over the weekend over a perceived escalation in the threat to the country’s children – and more hospital admissions.
Today’s newsletter, with Deepa Parent – a human rights journalist who has been covering the story for the Guardian – is after the headlines.
Five big stories
Immigration and asylum | Rishi Sunak has been warned that his plan to stop small boat crossings will be unworkable and lead to tens of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution being locked up. Legislation is expected tomorrow that would stop anybody arriving in the UK via small boat from claiming asylum.
Environment | After almost two decades of negotiations, UN member states have finally agreed the first ever treaty to protect against the loss of wildlife from the world’s oceans. The deal, which covers parts of the world’s seas outside of national boundaries, came after days of gruelling talks in New York.
Coronavirus | Simon Case, the most senior civil servant in the government, described Boris Johnson as a “nationally distrusted figure” and warned that the public were unlikely to follow coronavirus isolation rules if they were set out by him. The remarks were part of the latest tranche of 100,000 of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages to be published by the Daily Telegraph.
NHS | Ambulance worker strikes in England have been called off by the Unite union. Unite paused the strike action, which was expected to take place today and Wednesday, in order to enter pay talks with the government but said strikes could resume if there was no progress.
Honours | Boris Johnson has put his father, Stanley, forward for a knighthood as part of his resignation honours list, according to reports. Johnson’s list of nominations, said to be considerably longer than those for Theresa May or David Cameron, is currently being vetted by the Cabinet Office.
In depth: ‘The number of reports we’re seeing has rocketed’
For years, girls’ education has been an accepted and fairly ordinary part of life in Iran. Since 2011, women have outnumbered men on university campuses; the World Bank says that female literacy rose from 26% in 1976, before the Islamic Revolution, to 85% in 2021. While a 2012 policy restricted places for women at some public universities, the principle that girls are entitled to go to school is not a controversial one.
“Education for their daughters has been important to Iranian families for a long time,” said Deepa Parent. “Government scholarships have been available to girls. That’s part of what has made these stories so shocking.”
Here’s a summary of what we know, and what the consequences might be.
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What is causing the incidents?
Because of severe limits on press freedom on Iran, reporters face challenges to their ability to investigate the circumstances of the incidents – and there’s no direct evidence of responsibility. But through interviews with victims and their families, NGO workers, and medical professionals, it is possible to put some details together.
“The attacks aren’t sophisticated at all,” Deepa said. “One doctor told me that based on the symptoms they’re seeing, it’s likely to be a weak organophosphate agent.” Those are widely used in agriculture as pesticide, and – adds Deepa – the doctor told her that the only people he had treated in the past with similar symptoms worked in agricultural or military settings. Meanwhile, an Iranian parliamentarian said last week that nitrogen gas was detected in the poison at some of the schools.
In seeking to narrow possible responsibility, some have looked to the fact that the first incidents – which have since spread elsewhere – were in Qom, a highly religious city about 80 miles from Tehran. “While girls’ education is widely accepted, there are radical Islamists there who are against it,” Deepa said.
Some have asked if the incidents may be sanctioned or enabled by the government as part of efforts to intimidate the protest movement which has gripped the country since September, when Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in the custody of Iran’s “morality police”. Given the simplicity of the suspected raw materials, it is also possible that the attacks are copycat incidents.
There have also been claims that at least some of the cases may be the product of “mass sociogenic illness”, where symptoms spread without a clear biomedical cause. Proponents of that argument note the harsh repression of protesters in Iran as a possible trigger.
A review of blood tests from some Iranian schoolgirls found no evidence of toxins, this useful BBC explainer notes – although it also says that the results are not sufficient evidence to rule out poisoning even in the cases under review. The Wall Street Journal reported that in one video posted on social media last week, a class appeared to fall ill after a girl with asthma suffered breathing difficulties, which prompted a teacher to ask if students had smelled anything.
While it is plausible that some cases could be explained this way, in some instances witnesses have reported seeing suspicious objects thrown into schoolyards. Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert at the thinktank Rusi, told the BBC that poisonous substances can quickly degrade, making it very hard to draw firm conclusions. Some have also asked if similar incidents involving men or boys would have been subjected to similar scrutiny over the possibility of an “anxious” response.
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Why might girls be targeted?
“After Mahsa’s death, it was mostly university students who took to the streets first,” said Deepa. “But soon after, there were reports of three teenage girls who died from blows to the head: Setareh Tajik, Sarina Esmailzadeh and Nika Shahkarami.”
“These deaths completely changed the situation. I started to see pictures of teenage girls showing their middle fingers on a private protest group, burning Ayatollah Khamenei’s picture – they started this in the classrooms. And then these girls started to bunk class and join the protests in the streets.” You can see similar protests from October here, or in this extraordinary footage of girls shouting “get lost, Basiji” at a visiting member of the country’s paramilitary Basij force, central to the government’s crackdown.
While it is possible that extremists are taking advantage of the febrile political situation to act on their longstanding misogynistic view of women’s education, the incidents are widely viewed as a consequence of recent events.
“Nobody believes that it is coincidence that it has followed the protests,” said Deepa. “What you hear from activists and on protest networks is that this is revenge on these girls, and on their families.”
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How has the Iranian government responded?
After months of ignoring the incidents, a sharp recent upsurge in the number of cases appears to have forced the authorities’ hand. Last Sunday, Iran’s deputy education minister Younes Panahi acknowledged the poisoning of “several students” in Qom. On Wednesday, interior minister Ahmad Vahidi said that an investigation was under way. That appears to have had little effect so far: in the last week, said Deepa, “the number of reports we’re seeing has rocketed”.
She pointed to another possible reason for the Islamic Republic’s decision to acknowledge the phenomenon. “The foreign minister was at the UN human rights council, and he was scheduled to give an interview to Christiane Amanpour at CNN. That may have forced their hand.” At the UNHRC, an Iranian diplomat said that his country had “achieved greatly in empowering women and girls”.
Few observers will have confidence in any investigation. Besides questions over whether the authorities sanctioned any attacks, “Iranian authorities have a terrible record of investigating violence against women and girls”, Human Rights Watch said last week, pointing to the 2014 example of acid attacks on women in the city of Isfahan, which resulted in no arrests or prosecutions.
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What does all this mean for the future of the protest movement?
Whatever the complexity of assessing the causes, the spate of incidents comes at a febrile moment. While there has been a period of relative quiet in protest recently – perhaps because of a frightening spike in executions, with Amnesty International counting almost 100 carried out in January and February, a significant increase on the same period last year – the incidents in girls’ schools have prompted a new sense of outrage, Deepa said. “Protesters are telling me that they cannot allow this to happen to young girls.” On Wednesday – International Women’s Day – new protests are planned.
“These schoolgirls are seen as babies, there is a protectiveness,” Deepa said. “It was the death of those 16-year-old girls that charged the movement early on, and the anger over the situation for young girls now may do the same thing again.”
What else we’ve been reading
Over the course of his remarkable 30-year career, Gary Younge (above) has had “no problem being regarded as a Black writer”, he says – but he has “no interest in being confined by it”. This extract from his new book, stuffed with wisdom and great anecdotes, describes an era of change both vast and inadequate. Archie
The Murdaugh murders are the latest real-life crimes to grip America, and – thanks to a recent Netflix series – beyond. Guardian US spoke to the podcaster whose involvement kickstarted public interest in the case, as well as asking how the trial of disgraced patriarch Alex Murdaugh had a nation on tenterhooks. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters
The ghost of Boris Johnson still looms large in the Conservative party – and, writes Peter Walker, local members are becoming increasingly “interventionist and rebellious”. With MPs newly nervous about deselection, this piece is a useful guide to the lay of the land in the Tory shires. Archie
James Hong, the 94-year-old star of Oscar favourite Everything Everywhere All at Once, tells Ann Lee about a boom in on-screen representation for Asian actors, as well as the many decades of hard work and adversity which preceded it. Hannah
As chemists in England start stocking the weight loss drug Ozempic, Leila Latif writes about the mixed blessing her own medication has proved: “immensely helpful to my health”, but also killing her joyful connection with food and replacing it with “a life without appetite”. Archie
Sport
Football | Mo Salah (above) led Liverpool to a remarkable 7-0 victory over Manchester United at Anfield. Jonathan Wilson wrote: “One game … is nowhere near enough to assert that a new Liverpool is being born, but it felt a lot closer at the final whistle than it had at kick-off.” Meanwhile, a double for Brennan Johnson helped Nottingham Forest come from behind twice to secure a 2-2 draw with Everton.
Athletics | Eilish McColgan broke Paula Radcliffe’s 21-year-old British women’s 10,000m record at the Sound Running Ten in California. McColgan clocked 30min 00.86sec to win the event, shattering Radcliffe’s mark of 30:01.09 set in 2002.
Football | Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-1 despite going behind within two minutes to lift the Continental League Cup and take home their first silverware since 2019. A goal from Stina Blackstenius, Kim Little’s penalty and a Niamh Charles own goal secured the win.
The front pages
“Small boats clampdown unworkable, Sunak told” – the Guardian’s splash this Monday morning. “Migrants on small boats to be barred from Britain” is the Times’ version, similar to the Daily Mail’s: “Boat migrants to get life ban”. The Daily Express says senior Tories believe that “Ending Channel migrant crisis can win election”. The run of Conservative-related headlines continues in the i which says “Budget 2023: Hunt and Sunak head for new tax clash with Tory backbenches”.
The Daily Telegraph continues to spill the WhatsApp files: “Hancock rejected plan to cut isolation”. “Waiting list agony … 11m suffer in NHS dentist crisis” – that’s the Daily Mirror, while the Metro goes for a global story: “The tide is turning” which is about the High Seas Treaty, a “deal to save the oceans”. The Financial Times leads with the “two sessions” summit being held in China under the iron grip of Xi Jinping: “Beijing’s 5% expansion target signals end to the era of ‘rip-roaring growth’”.
Today in Focus
The dawn of the four-day week
A growing movement to shorten the working week is gaining supporters, including bosses as well as employees. Heather Stewart reports
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
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The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
For journalist and Guardian Saturday gardening columnist Alice Vincent, her 20s seemed – on paper at least – full of fun. However, deep down she was lonely, a feeling that would re-emerge during the Covid lockdowns. In response, Alice resolved to make a list of women she wanted to meet, seeking out new friendships with other people who also shared a passion for gardening. Over 14 months, she met 45 women aged from 22 to 82, finding out about their lives as well as their green-fingered exploits. She has since brought their stories together in a book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival.
“Forming new friendships has been exhilarating, especially with people I would struggle to encounter otherwise – women from a different generation or background, who have lived different lives,” she writes. “Furthermore, in making these new friends I have learned to be a better friend to those who have stuck with me for far longer”.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
