Teachers protest over suspected Iran schoolgirl poisonings

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 poisonings are further forcing a domestic conversation along Iran’s deep social divides between religious conservative Iranians and more secular liberal Iranians,” risk-intelligence 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. A news site, activists and others also face charges over allegedly spreading “unreal claims and totally false” statements about the attacks, Salehi said, according to the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency. On Monday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said any culprits connected to the alleged poisonings should be sentenced to death for committing an “unforgivable crime.” Seeking to ease worries, Iran’s Interior Ministry announced Tuesday night it made arrests in six provinces of unnamed suspects over the suspected poisonings.