5-6-2023 (KABUL) Nearly 80 girls were poisoned and hospitalized in two separate attacks at their primary schools in northern Afghanistan over the weekend, according to a local education official. It is believed to be the first time this kind of assault has happened since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021 and began their crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.
Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade, including university, and women are barred from most jobs and public spaces. The education official stated that the person who orchestrated the poisoning had a personal grudge but did not elaborate.
The attacks took place in Sar-e-Pul province on Saturday and Sunday. Mohammad Rahmani, who heads the provincial education department, said that nearly 80 female students were poisoned in Sangcharak district. Sixty students were poisoned in Naswan-e-Kabod Aab School, and 17 others were poisoned in Naswan-e-Faizabad School, both of which are located near each other.
“We shifted the students to hospital, and now they are all fine,” Rahmani said. He did not provide information on how the girls were poisoned or the nature of their injuries, but he did mention that they were in grades one to six.
The education department’s investigation is ongoing, but initial inquiries suggest that someone with a grudge paid a third party to carry out the attacks, Rahmani said.
Neighboring Iran has witnessed a wave of poisonings, mostly in girls’ schools, dating back to last November. Thousands of students reported being sickened by noxious fumes in these incidents. However, there has been no word on who might be behind the attacks or the chemicals used.
