Story by Ahmed Vahdat, James Rothwell • Yesterday
More than a thousand Iranian university students appear to have been poisoned the night before they were to attend mass anti-regime protests being held across the country this week.
The scene in Tehran's Enghelab Square on Sunday -
Atta Kenare/ AFP© Atta Kenare/ AFP
According to ISNA, an Iranian news agency, 1,200 students at Kharazmi and Ark universities were taken ill with vomiting, severe body aches and hallucinations. Similar illnesses were reported by at least four other universities.
The Iranian science ministry confirmed that the students were struck by food poisoning, which has led to students protesting by dumping their food on to pavements. Video footage posted online over the weekend showed row upon row of plastic bags containing canteen food placed on the ground outside Ark university.
The Iranian regime has been accused of deliberately poisoning students to thwart their latest protest, while authorities have blamed accidental food poisoning linked to an outbreak of water-borne bacteria in the country.
A statement from Iran's national student union said: "Our past experiences of similar incidents at the Isfahan university negates the authorities' reason for this mass food poisoning".
The student union has claimed the universities' clinics have closed or suddenly run out of electrolytes which has made it harder to treat dehydration - a common symptom of food poisoning. Meanwhile, female students have been told to remain inside their dormitories at some universities.
Iranians have called for an intensified three-day period of national strikes and protests which began yesterday.
It came as an Iranian state broadcaster denied reports that the regime had scrapped its "morality police", the religious enforcers whose alleged killing of student Mahsa Amini, 22, triggered the mass protest movement.
The broadcaster Al-Alam reported on Sunday night: "No official in the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the closure of the morality police."
It said some foreign media had characterised a weekend statement by Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran's attorney general, as "the Islamic Republic's withdrawal from its hijab (laws) and influenced by the recent riots".
He had said that the unit was "shut down" and had "nothing to do with" the country's judiciary as part of a response to a question about rumours that it had been scrapped. It remained unclear whether the unit had been closed down as of yesterday afternoon.
If confirmed, the move to end the rule of morality police officers on Iran's streets would be a major concession to the protesters, who have clashed in their thousands with regime security forces across dozens of towns and cities, leaving more than 300 people dead.
The protests have quickly evolved into a mass uprising that now appears to be focused on the total collapse of the regime, rather than moderate changes to the Iranian legal system.
It also emerged yesterday that Iran has sealed off a jewellery shop and restaurant belonging to the famous footballer Ali Daei, after he backed protesters' calls for strikes.
Daei's 109 goals at international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him. ISNA reported that the ex-player's shop and restaurant in Tehran's fashionable north end had been ordered to shut.
"Following the co-operation with anti-revolutionary groups in cyberspace to disrupt peace and business of the market, a judicial order was issued to seal Noor Jewellery Gallery," ISNA reported. It said a restaurant linked to Daei had also been ordered shut but gave no details about it.
Last week, Daei said he had received threats after backing the protest movement. Iranian shops shut their doors in several cities yesterday, following calls for the three-day national strike.
According to ISNA, an Iranian news agency, 1,200 students at Kharazmi and Ark universities were taken ill with vomiting, severe body aches and hallucinations. Similar illnesses were reported by at least four other universities.
The Iranian science ministry confirmed that the students were struck by food poisoning, which has led to students protesting by dumping their food on to pavements. Video footage posted online over the weekend showed row upon row of plastic bags containing canteen food placed on the ground outside Ark university.
The Iranian regime has been accused of deliberately poisoning students to thwart their latest protest, while authorities have blamed accidental food poisoning linked to an outbreak of water-borne bacteria in the country.
A statement from Iran's national student union said: "Our past experiences of similar incidents at the Isfahan university negates the authorities' reason for this mass food poisoning".
The student union has claimed the universities' clinics have closed or suddenly run out of electrolytes which has made it harder to treat dehydration - a common symptom of food poisoning. Meanwhile, female students have been told to remain inside their dormitories at some universities.
Iranians have called for an intensified three-day period of national strikes and protests which began yesterday.
It came as an Iranian state broadcaster denied reports that the regime had scrapped its "morality police", the religious enforcers whose alleged killing of student Mahsa Amini, 22, triggered the mass protest movement.
The broadcaster Al-Alam reported on Sunday night: "No official in the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the closure of the morality police."
It said some foreign media had characterised a weekend statement by Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran's attorney general, as "the Islamic Republic's withdrawal from its hijab (laws) and influenced by the recent riots".
He had said that the unit was "shut down" and had "nothing to do with" the country's judiciary as part of a response to a question about rumours that it had been scrapped. It remained unclear whether the unit had been closed down as of yesterday afternoon.
If confirmed, the move to end the rule of morality police officers on Iran's streets would be a major concession to the protesters, who have clashed in their thousands with regime security forces across dozens of towns and cities, leaving more than 300 people dead.
The protests have quickly evolved into a mass uprising that now appears to be focused on the total collapse of the regime, rather than moderate changes to the Iranian legal system.
It also emerged yesterday that Iran has sealed off a jewellery shop and restaurant belonging to the famous footballer Ali Daei, after he backed protesters' calls for strikes.
Daei's 109 goals at international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him. ISNA reported that the ex-player's shop and restaurant in Tehran's fashionable north end had been ordered to shut.
"Following the co-operation with anti-revolutionary groups in cyberspace to disrupt peace and business of the market, a judicial order was issued to seal Noor Jewellery Gallery," ISNA reported. It said a restaurant linked to Daei had also been ordered shut but gave no details about it.
Last week, Daei said he had received threats after backing the protest movement. Iranian shops shut their doors in several cities yesterday, following calls for the three-day national strike.
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