Iran International
Food poisoning affecting hundreds of Iranian university students has alarmed many who claim canteen food was deliberately contaminated to keep them out of protests.
In the past couple of days “a large number of students” at Arak Industrial University and Kharazmi University in Karaj came down with symptoms of food poisoning including diarrhea, body aches, and vomiting, the Telegram channel of a national student union said Thursday.
There were food poisoning breakouts recently at two other universities, Al-Zahra University in Tehran and Isfahan University of Technology both believed to have originated from canteens.
Calling the incidents another case of “serial food poisoning”, the channel said, authorities of Arak University attribute the illness, which has sent many to hospital since Wednesday, to some sort of virus but given a similar incident at Isfahan university of technology last week where many students got seriously ill after eating canteen food makes authorities’ explanation implausible.
Students in Iran's state universities, particularly those who live in dormitories, often eat at the canteen where food is sold at subsidized prices. Outbreaks outside the universities have not been reported.
Some social media users have claimed that students in these universities are being deliberately poisoned by the authorities because of their very active role in the protest movement. The purpose they say is to keep them away from the protests planned on the occasion of Student Day on Monday.
Students of Isfahan University staged a protest following the incident and demanded the resignation of the university officials. “We don’t want rotten food, We don’t want murderous authorities!”, they chanted.
Health officials of Esfahan Province last week attributed the mass poisoning of to Shigella Sonnei, a bacteria that causes an infection called shigellosis with symptoms including diarrhea (sometimes bloody), fever, and stomach cramps a day or two after infection. The outbreak reportedly affected over three hundred students at the university.
The foodborne Shigella bacteria can be found in foods such as salads, meats and dairy.
The student union said Thursday so many students of Kharazmi University in Karaj had taken ill that the campus health center ran out of intravenous injection fluids for dehydration treatment and there were no beds to accommodate all patients. “The university pharmacy is closed, and female students are not allowed at this time [late evening] to leave their dormitories to seek medical care,” the student social media channel reported.
The same source said Friday students at Al-Zahra University in Tehran where a similar incident happened on November 24 were threatened by university officials not to tell anyone their illness was caused by canteen food. “The physician of the university clinic insisted that students had been infected by a foodborne virus they ate outside the university,” the channel quoted students as saying.
Residents of several cities Sistan-Baluchistan Province, including its capital Zahedan, held demonstrations after Friday prayers as they have done since unrest began in mid-September in Iran. The protesters are especially enraged over a recently leaked document that revealed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered his officials to defame Abdolhamid, the most prominent religious leader of Iran's largely Sunni Baluch population living in the province.
Earlier this week the hacktivist group Black Reward breached the data servers of Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard, and released several documents indicating that Khamenei is dismayed by Abdolhamid’s remarks, who has been critical of Iran’s autocrat for the indiscriminate crackdown on protests in the province and elsewhere.
Relations between Abdolhamid and the government became tense after security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Zahedan September 30, killing more than 80 people.
In addition to Zahedan on Friday, protesters in Chabahar, Khash, Iranshahr, and Zahak, chanted slogans such as "Sheikh-ul-Islam (Abdolahamid) is with God, Khamenei is disgraced,” “Salute to Mowlavi, Death to Khamenei,” and “With Hijab or without hijab, moving towards revolution.”
According to videos posted on social media, security forces clashed with protesters in Zahedan and used teargas to disperse the gathering.
During his Friday prayer sermon earlier in the day, Abdolhamid decried the torture of detained protesters and warned the Islamic Republic against issuing verdicts that call protesters mohareb (muharib), which means warrior in Arabic. In Iran’s Islamic law the term means ‘enemy of God’ which carries the death penalty.
"A prisoner is a captive. Beating, insulting, cursing and assaulting him is against the teachings of Imam Ali (the first Shiite imam), Ahl al-Bayt (the family of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad), Hazrat Rasool (Prophet Muhammad) and Islam. The dissidents and critics should be treated in an Islamic manner,” he emphasized.
Abdolhamid went on to say that the nation has endured problems for 44 years, now they are protesting, insisting that their protests should not be a pretext to execute them. He said that their demands are legitimate, adding, "We want our country to be safe and united. We don't have Shiites, Sunnis or ethnic groups here. We are all Iranians. From Zoroastrians and Dervishes to Baha’is. They are also human and Iranian, and their rights should be respected…If an American or an Israeli speaks the truth, it is still the truth," he said.
Dervishes of the Gonabadi order are among religious groups seen as potential security threats in Iran, and are regularly persecuted by the regime. Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, also say their rights are systematically violated and they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government jobs and university education. Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.
Referring to the recent leak and the regime’s efforts to tarnish his image, Abdolhamid said "If the reign and power are in your hands, it was God's will. If we have respect and love of people, it is also a God's gift. What God gives, only He can take back. God gives honor and takes it away. No one else can take someone’s honor."
Abdolhamid's popularity is largely because of his willingness to challenge Khamenei’s absolute power. Earlier in November, the outspoken Sunni Imam said women, ethnic and religious groups have faced discrimination after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.