Iran Offers Denials, Accusations, Excuses About Gas Attacks
More than three months after gas attacks began on girls' schools in Iran, the Ministry of Education has not shown any serious reaction to the shocking events.
More than three months after gas attacks began on girls' schools in Iran, the Ministry of Education has not shown any serious reaction to the shocking events.
According to Khabar Online news website in Tehran, at least 1,200 girls have been poisoned by the attacks just in Qom and Boroujerd. Other chemical attacks have also occurred in Tehran, Karaj, Kermanshah and Ardabil.
Khabar Online wrote on Saturday that the education ministry's silence is questionable as it has been quick to react to students singing a funny folk song at a school in Ghaem Shahr (Shahi) in February. The reaction in that case started from firing the teacher and forcing her to apologize on Instagram for "failing to take care of pupils."
The report said that explanations offered so far by officials are generally excuses made usually in the form of news fabrication. The only official reaction by Education Minister Yousef Nouri was dismissing the news of the attacks as "rumors".
Most other Iranian politicians either flatly denied the reports or like President Ebrahim Raisi blamed "the enemies" for the attacks. Many others who usually pass off-hand judgement on almost every development blaming intelligence agencies of the United States or Israel have followed Raisi.
Media linked to the government, including the Tehran Municipality's Hamshahri, implicated opposition leaders such as Prince Reza Pahlavi, women's right activist Masih Alinejad and National Council of Resistance leader Maryam Rajavi and published their pictures as "culprits." Obviously, a few hardliner loyalists believe such accusations in Iran.
But blaming “enemies” also begs the question of where more than a dozen intelligence agencies are when foreign agents can roam around throwing chemical gases into schools.
Meanwhile, the minister implicitly asked the media to push the news of the chemical attacks under the carpet so that the ministry could make up for the educational backlog resulting from the pandemic.
Some hardliners such as the Islamic Coalition Party member Ahmad Karimi-Esfahani flately denied the reports and videos about the gas attacks. He said that those reports were fabricated by "the enemies." The politician further claimed that "it has not been proven yet that anyone has been poisoned" and that "the attacks exist only on social media." This comes while the government has been sending tens of ambulance buses to the schools that were attack and videos of students at hospital are going viral on social media and foreign-based Persian media.
Earlier, vigilante leader Hossein Allahkaram told reporters in Tehran that the news of the attacks were "part of a plot to destabilize and disintegrate Iran and keep the Women, Life Freedom movement going."
Karimi-Esfahani also claimed that disseminating the news of the poisonings were part of "a plot hatched by the enemies." He also claimed that a deputy education minister's statement about "the attacks being launched by a group who opposes the idea of girls going to school was later denied."
Some former Iranian officials such as former Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani claimed on social media that the advocates of Women, Life Freedom Movement have deliberately poisoned the students. More shameless accusations are levelled by officials who claimed "the students have poisoned themselves!"
Reformist media in Iran, however, characterized the attacks as "organized crime" and urged the officials to offer convincing explanations rather than levelling fictitious accusations.
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Alamolhoda said in his sermon on Friday that the regime is no longer powerful enough to stand against women who defy compulsory hijab and [fundamentalist] men and women may need to take the law into their hands.
By this call, Alamolhoda, who is President Ebrahim Raisi’s father-in-law, may have tried to align with the extremists said to be behind the gas attacks on girls' schools in several Iranian cities.
The hardliner cleric opined that the campaign against compulsory hijab has reached a stage in which any institution defending the dress code will be seen as part of the government. Alamolhoda's critics will certainly take his comment as yet another indication of his opposition to what he thinks is the government's "mild" reaction to defiance against the compulsory dress code imposed on Iranian women.
On Thursday, several social media accounts close to clerical circles in Iran suggested that Almolhoda is to be replaced as the Friday Prayers Imam and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in Mashhad. Earlier Alamolhoda was criticized and cautioned by senior members of Khamenei's office about his "too hardline" views that will anger women and fuel protests.
One of the tweets on Thursday even named Ayatollah Mohammad-Javad Nezafat-Yazdi as the man who is likely to take over Alamolhoda's position. The tweet said: "Finally, several years of criticism of the controversial Imam in Mashhad worked and Alamolhoda is going to be replaced by Nezafat-Yazdi." The tweet charged that Alamolhoda violated the country's cultural policies, banned concerts and called chaste women who defied the hijab "prostitutes."
On Friday, Alamolhoda harshly criticized those who say that the Islamic regime should not try to offend "the enemies". He later made it clear that by "enemy" he meant the United States, nicknamed by Islamic Republic officials as "the world's arrogant power." He further claimed that Iran's revolution is spreading in the region and "That is why the United States sees the Islamic Republic as its new rival in the region."
He further charged that opposition to compulsory hijab is another tactic by the United States to topple the Islamic regime in Iran. He claimed that a think tank at the Johns Hopkins University in the United States has decided to increase the rate of exchange for US dollar to 600,000 rials, a level the rates reached last week. He even claimed that Mark Dubowitz of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies as the brain behind the “economic war room” against the Islamic Republic.
Alamolhoda's possible replacement from his high positions are likely to further weaken his embattled son-in-law Raisi who is seriously under attack even by his own supporters for failing to save Iran's ailing economy.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials and politicians have said repeatedly that replacing one hardliner by another will not solve the country's problems. In one of the latest cases, Ahmad Alireza Beigi, a lawmaker from Tabriz, has said: "The Islamic Republic is like a vehicle that has run out of fuel but we are trying to replace the driver, hoping this will solve the problem."
Alireza Beigi added: "No change will happen unless we return power to the people." He further said: "First we need to return to the point where we made a mistake. We need to allow the people to see the outcome of their own will in running the affairs of the state."
The lawmaker said elsewhere: "Short-sightedness and limiting people's choices have led to the formation of a government in Iran which lacks the people's support and thus, does not have self-confidence." He reminded that Raisi was placed in a position of power when the Guardian Council's secretary said, "We will have a good election even if the people do not take part in it." He warned: "You cannot expect a good election if you ignore the people. And you saw that Raisi was elected in an election with minimal turnout."