KABUL: Afghanistan’s education minister has threatened to punish schoolgirls who claim to suffer from alleged “poisonings” officials believe are temporary psychological illnesses.
Scores of girls’ schools have seen mysterious mass faintings, nausea and similar symptoms often blamed by police and the media on poisoning by Taliban insurgents or toxic gas leaks.
But no laboratory evidence of poison or other toxins has been found at schools and no deaths have occurred, with girls often discharged from hospital after only a few hours.
In the latest case, 200 girls were reported to have been “poisoned” at a school in Kabul on May 1, causing screaming, stomach aches and vomiting. “From now on, if I find anyone saying ‘I’m poisoned’ and the poisoning is not proved by hospital, I will punish the student,” Ghulam Farooq Wardak told a press conference on Tuesday. “I will punish the teacher, I will punish the head teacher and I will punish the school director.” The education department said the government was determined to crack down on the causes of outbreaks of psychological illnesses among girls. “When one student faints, it spreads around and everyone might think it’s poisoning,” the ministry’s spokesman Mohammad Kabir Haqmal said. AFP
