New Stanford Report on School Poisonings in Iran
The Stanford Humanitarian Program at the Stanford Law School recently conducted an open-source investigation into the poisonings of school girls in Iran amidst the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. The new report, written by Bailey Ulbricht and Allen S. Weiner, in partnership with Stanford's Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies and the Azadi Archive, is now available for download.
The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement was a series of protests led largely by women and girls that swept Iran beginning in September 2022. While these protests spread across Iran, allegations emerged that intentional poisonings had been carried out in schools across Iran, the vast majority at girls’ schools. While there is no official list of how many poisonings occurred, by March 2023, the state-affiliated news outlet Tasnim reported that over 13,000 schoolgirls had been affected by the poisonings. An independent researcher outside of Iran documented over 400 incidents. Eventually, the Iranian government announced its assessment, based on investigations it purported to carry out, that nearly all incidents were due to mass hysteria. Yet uncertainty remains about what actually happened to schoolgirls across Iran.
Using open-source information, they looked into whether schools were poisoned in Iran during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. The report found evidence that contradicts the government’s findings, and instead shows that schoolgirls in Iran experienced real symptoms that were caused by something physical rather than being solely psychological. They also found that although Iranian officials acknowledged publicly that something had occurred and in some cases attributed the incidents to poison, they nevertheless downplayed the girls’ symptoms, prevented information about the incidents from spreading, failed to take safety precautions to prevent future incidents, and failed to properly investigate or provide evidence-supported explanations for what happened. The report finds that Iran violated several of its obligations under international law in light of the government’s response to the poisoning incidents.
The aim of this report is to produce reliable evidence of the school poisonings with an eye towards accountability. In doing so, they aim not to speak for those who experienced these events, but rather to ensure their experiences are not forgotten.