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RFL/RE — Dozens of Iranian students across the country say they have been banned from entering their universities after they protested the suspected poisoning of pupils that has hospitalized scores, mainly schoolgirls.
According to the United Students Telegram channel, at least 40 students at the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and 30 students at Tehran’s Allameh University have been denied entrance to their campuses, while some students at Soore University in Tehran said they have been summoned to attend “mandatory workshops.”
Videos and photos published on social media on March 8 showed students at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, and AmirKabir University of Technology staging on-campus protests as the government’s slow response to the crisis fueled speculation over what could have caused more than 5,000 students, mainly girls, to have fallen ill.
WATCH: After Iranian security forces largely suppressed nationwide protests, could a new cause stoke anger against the authorities? Some 5,000 schoolgirls have been reported ill. There are widespread claims that they have been poisoned, but a lack of hard evidence is fueling calls for an impartial investigation.
Hundreds have been hospitalized after complaining of symptoms that included nausea, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations, numbness, and hand or leg pain.
It remains unclear what might be causing the illnesses, though some of those affected have said they smelled chlorine or cleaning agents, while others said they thought they smelled tangerines in the air.
No one has claimed responsibility for the wave of illnesses that some officials — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — have characterized as “poisonings.”
The lack of clarity over the situation has prompted some to say the suspected poisonings are intentional and a scare tactic being used to intimidate females who have protested over the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a hijab, or head scarf, improperly.
Universities and schools have become leading venues for clashes between protesters and the authorities, prompting security forces to launch a series of raids on schools across the country, violently arresting students, especially female students, who have defiantly taken off their hijabs in protest.
An unspecified number of arrests had been made in five provinces in connection with the incidents, but few details have been made public.
