Not long after hearing about plain-clothes agents’ dousing acid on the car of Dr. Saberi, a Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi and university lecturer, on 13, Mehr (October, 5, 2014), did the issue of dousing acid on women in Isfahan hit the headlines. The day after two motor cyclists pursued Dr. Saberi and doused acid on his car, agents of the Ministry of Intelligence summoned him to ask him to cancel Ahmad Ghazali seminar and told him that the ministry had nothing to do with the incident and that plain-clothes agents had done it.
During the previous days, even some of the government officials, including the president, indirectly suggested that the instigators of the incidents in Isfahan are those who act independently on the pretext of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. This accusation obviously made the Head of the Judiciary and the Head of Basij angry, and their anger took a toll on the media which could trace the origins of the incidents of Isfahan in Tehran and the plain-clothes agents’ attack of Dr. Saberi’s car if the boycott of news related to Gonabadi Sufis was lifted.
The security agents said that civilians were behind the acid dousing.
Following his interrogation regarding the cancellation of Ahmad Ghazali seminar, and calling the civilians responsible for his acid dousing incident, Mr. Saberi told Majzooban Noor:” Following the dervishes’ gathering to end the imprisoned dervishes’ hunger strike and demand their freedom, in order to create an unsafe environment for us, Dr. Pazooki, Mr. Jazbi (one of Nematollahi Gonabadi dervishes’ sheikhs) and myself were followed by motorcyclists. They also visibly had our house under close surveillance. The surveillance continued for 2 days. They were pursuing us wherever we went. Then they doused acid, not at night but during daylight.
On the first day, they doused acid on my landlord’s son’s car.
This university professor also stated:” At first, the plain-clothes agents mistook my landlord’s son’s car for mine and damaged it with acid. After following my car a number of times to identify it, they poured acid on the roof. What is interesting is that they did it in complete calm and patience. They even left the empty acid container on top of the car.
The matter was reported to the police immediately.
Dr. Saberi said:” The morning when the incident took place, I was watching the motor cyclists through my window. I called the police and told them that I am not safe in my house. After the incident, Police 110 arrived and noted in the report that the car roof was damaged with acid.”
The agents of dousing acid in both of the incidents had political and ideological motives.
Majzooban Noor adds: A close look at Isfahan incidents, regardless of the issue of gender, and how Dr. Saberi’s car was attacked suggests that the agents of both incidents did what they did not for some personal reasons or antagonism but for reasons with deeper roots and wider scopes.
The parallel between dousing acid on women in Isfahan with the purpose of spreading terror in society and the plain-clothes agents’ undeniable attack of Dr. Saberi’s car in Tehran reinforces the assumption that acid is now considered as a new means to use by self-willed bodies since in both sets of incidents, the instigators focused on ideological matters.
Investigations show that the main goal of the instigators of this criminal action was to heighten tension and inflict terror. As they damaged Dr. Saberi’s car during daylight in order to discourage Gonabadi dervishes from standing up for their legal and legitimate rights, they also wished to attack the opposition party in Isfahan. This makes sense because immediately after the president and the Interior Minister made critical comments about how ‘enjoining the good and forbidding the evil’ was being practiced in Iran, the Parliament started negotiations over the plan of “Supporting those involved in enjoining the good and forbidding the evil” and put it to the vote.
