Latest update – 9:45 pm CET
Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 168th day on Thursday as protests in many cities are escalating following a growing number of gas attacks targeting mostly all-girls schools in Tehran and other cities. At least 26 schools in six cities across the country were targeted in a string of mysterious gas attacks on Wednesday alone, leaving hundreds of schoolgirls poisoned and sent to medical centers to receive aid. This led to many scenes of protests and anti-regime slogans on Wednesday.
People throughout the country are specifically holding the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 664 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Reports from Karaj, a major city west of the capital Tehran indicate that a technical college campus was the target of yet another poisonous gas attack today. Ambulances and firetrucks were dispatched to the scene to transfer a number of students for medical attention.
A similar gas attack was also reported on Thursday in the city of Ardabil in northwest Iran where more than 40 schoolgirls were poisoned after their school came under a new gas attack today. Many were transferred to medical centers to receive attention.
March 2 – Karaj, west of #Iran
Ambulances and firetrucks were sent to the Technical University campus to transfer a number of poisoned students to medical centers.#IranianSchoolgirls pic.twitter.com/QqvgNbJb4F— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 2, 2023
Locals in the capital Tehran were reporting several poisonous gas attacks on Wednesday, with initial reports arriving from the all-girls Hajar School. One man said the stench smelled like orange and is very heavy in the air.
Reports of such attacks have been escalating throughout the past four months, starting from the city of Qom and spreading across the country. This issue is raising suspicions that the mullahs’ regime, considering their misogynist policies, is sanctioning these attacks that have mostly targeted all-girls schools.
Latest reports indicated at least 26 schools in Tehran and five other cities were targeted in similar poisonous gas attacks and a number of students were transferred to various hospitals. Even elementary schools are coming under such attacks that were reported from Tehran’s Narmak, Yarejani, and Tehransar districts. At least three schools in Narmak district and another three schools in the city’s Bahar Street were targeted in these strings of poisonous gas attacks.
At least one school in the city of Karaj, Isfahan, several in Ardabil, and another in Kermanshah and Shahinshahr of Isfahan Province were also reporting a poisonous gas attack following an explosion.
Reports indicate at least 26 all-girls high schools across Iran and some female universities, mostly in Tehran, were targeted in chemical gas attacks on Wednesday. Report from Ardabil in northwest Iran showed 400 girls were transferred to Fatemi’s Emergency from seven schools and conditions were described as a crisis.
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi condemned the poisonous gas attacks targeting schools in several cities across the country.
“Families and students in Tehran and Ardabil protested the poisoning of students, chanting ‘Death to Khamenei!’ ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘Death to the child-killing regime!” I urge all compatriots and brave youths to rise in support and solidarity with protesters. I urge the Human Rights Council and relevant UN rapporteurs to act urgently and hold Khamenei’s misogynist regime accountable for the criminal disaster of poisoning of schoolgirls. I reiterate the urgent need to send the international fact-finding mission to Iran,” she emphasized.
Families and students in Tehran and Ardabil protested the #poisoning of students, chanting "death to Khamenei," "death to the dictator," and "death to the child-killing regime." I urge all compatriots and brave youths to rise in support and solidarity with protesters. pic.twitter.com/r4tfgKcOoi
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 1, 2023
“The deliberate poisoning of schoolgirls in Qom, Tehran, Ardabil, Kermanshah, etc. continues, with Khamenei’s henchmen using it to take revenge on girls active during the uprising. It supplements the work of the Morality Police. I urge Iran’s courageous youth to protest. I call on advocates of human, children, and women’s rights to condemn the regime’s heinous crime. Urging UN special rapporteurs, UN Commission on the Status of Women to immediately question the clerical regime. Calling on the World Health Organization to send a delegation to deal with the tragedy,” the NCRI President-elect highlighted.
In the city of Gachsaran in Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmad Province of southwest Iran workers of the local petrochemical site associated to the Tian Industrial Company were on strike on Thursday demanding company officials address their concerns.
On Thursday night locals in the city of Ardabil began chanting anti-regime slogans, including “Death to Khamenei!” referring to regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
March 2 – Ardabil, northwest #Iran
Locals began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
"Death to Khamenei!" referring to regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.#IranRevoIution pic.twitter.com/rMQ8q6FRph— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 2, 2023
On Wednesday night locals in Tehran, including the Jannatabad, Tehranpars, and Sa’adatabad districts, and Mashhad, began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Poverty-Corruption-High prices! We’re going to overthrow the regime!”
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to the child-killing regime!”
“We don’t want a republic of execution!”
“Khamenei, you murderer! We will bury you!”
In the city of Dehgolan in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, protesters torched a billboard of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Such measures are seen in many cities across the country as people resort to such actions to voice their hatred of the mullahs’ regime.
March 1 – Dehgolan, western #iran
Protesters torched a billboard of regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/hMUKhrJSGs— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 1, 2023
The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.
She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.
