Reza Pourjafar

Reza Pourjafar is a Turkish blogger from Urmia (AKA Uncle Reza). He was imprisoned for publishing the article in response to the "serial poisoning of students". Pourjafar is the director and actor of humorous clips in Turkish. He produced works related to social problems; "Ana Dili" (Mother Tongue) is one of his works about ethnic discrimination.

During the serial poisoning of (mostly) girls' schools in Iran, many students in several schools nationwide were "suspiciously" poisoned by chemical gas. The chain of events began on November 30, 2022, in a school for girls in Qom during the nationwide Women, Life, Freedom uprising. The Islamic Republic officials initially tried to deny the truth and blamed the "enemy groups" and "anti-revolutionaries" and in some cases "public hysteria" and students "faking illness" for the events; But soon after, Younse Panahi, the Ministry of Health, announced that the poisonings were intentional. In late December, the leader Ali Khamenei also talked about the role of some "individuals or groups" in these events. After his speech, the Ministry of Intelligence promised to investigate and the Minister of Interior Ahmad Vahidi, and his security and law enforcement deputy announced the arrests of the "culprits" in the poisoning of students in five provinces. After that, the Islamic Republic's propaganda machine turned the blame on the students and protesters. Many believe that the serial poisonings were a coordinated and planned campaign in reaction to the peaceful participation of students in the Women, Life, Freedom uprising and the women's collective fight against mandatory hijab and the oppressive policies of the Islamic Republic against them. <symbol-timeline></symbol-timeline>

• <coverage-outsourcing id='51805'> <reference source='https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1401/12/19/2865163'> Reza Pourjafar was arrested by the security forces and taken to a detention center in Urmia. Tasnim, the media affiliated with the Iranian government, called him a "virtual thug" without mentioning the name of the accused and wrote: > During his career, while insulting different sections of the society, from journalists to police officers, this blogger also sought to create inflammation and disrupt the psychological atmosphere in the recent events of the society. His Instagram page was disabled after his arrest and all his content was deleted. Before his arrest, he had published several stories related to the serial poisoning of students; In one of his stories, he wrote: > Our children did not see the war, but they tasted the chemical weapons. Tasnim news agency announced that the reason for his arrest was related to the serial poisoning of students. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='51807'> <reference source='https://t.me/ArazNews/85910'> According to Araznews, Reza Pourjafar was released from Urmia prison on bail. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>