Food poisoning affecting hundreds of Iranian university students has alarmed many who claim the food was deliberately contaminated to prevent them from participating in protests. Students in Iran who live in dormitories, eat in a canteen where food is sold at subsidized prices
In the past two days, a large number of students at the Industrial University of Ark and the Khorzami University in Karaj have suffered symptoms of food poisoning including diarrhea, body aches and vomiting, the Telegram channel of the National Student Union reported last Thursday. Recently, there have been outbreaks of food poisoning at two other universities, Al-Zahra University in Tehran and the Technological University in Isfahan, the Iran International TV channel reported.
Calling the incidents another case of “serial food poisoning”, the authorities of the University of Arc reportedly attribute the illness, which has sent many to the hospital since Wednesday, to some virus, but in light of a similar incident at the University of Isfahan, to technology in the week past, when many students became seriously ill after eating food in the canteen, makes the authorities’ explanation implausible.
Isfahan University of Technology students put their food trays on the ground on Saturday in protest of the poisoning of a large number of students in the dormitory
Students at Iran’s state universities, especially those living in dormitories, often eat at the canteen where food is sold at subsidized prices. Outbreaks of the virus have not been reported outside universities.
Some of the surfers on the social networks claimed that students at these universities are being poisoned on purpose by the authorities because of their very active role in the protest movement against the Iranian regime, the goal according to them is to keep them away from the demonstrations planned for Student’s Day this coming Monday.
Students in Isfahan staged a protest following the incident and demanded the resignation of university officials. “We don’t want rotten food, we don’t want murderous authorities,” they chanted.
Iran’s Students’ Union said last Thursday that so many students at Bakraj University had fallen ill that the campus health center had run out of injections to treat dehydration and there were no beds to accommodate all the patients. “The university’s pharmacy is closed, and students are not allowed to leave their dormitories at this time to seek medical treatment,” the student channel reported on social media.
The same source said that students last Friday at Al-Zahra University in Tehran, where a similar incident occurred on November 24, were threatened by university officials not to tell anyone that their illness was caused by food in the canteen. “The doctor of the university clinic insisted that students contracted the virus from food they ate outside the university,” students told the channel.
The video received by Iran International shows that the students of Isfahan University of Technology put their food containers on the ground on Saturday, December 5th, in protest of the poisoning of a large number of students with dormitory food. pic.twitter.com/KTpPLEPFHh
— Iran International (@IranIntl) November 26, 2022