In Afghanistan, girls are still being poisoned at school. In the past few weeks, six schools have suffered from attacks, and 400 girls have fallen ill, with no deaths. Fifteen people have been arrested for their alleged roles in the poisoning, as announced by the Afghan National Directorate for Security this week.
Authorities are claiming that Pakistani ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) agents are helping the Taliban to carry out the poisonings. The Taliban denies any connection to the poisonings, saying that hurting innocent schoolgirls is against Islamic law. The ISI calls the allegations “absurd and senseless.”
As no indications of poisoning have been discovered in any of the victims, some experts now suggest that the incidents could be mass hysteria. The alleged poisonings could fit the diagnosis of mass hysteria because of continued war and military presence in Afghanistan, the fear of the Taliban’s return, and the traumatic experience of three decades worth of war, poverty, family disputes, and migration, as stated by Director of the Mental Health Department Bashir Ahmad Sarwari.
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