A prosecutor in Iran's northern city of Anzali on Monday said an arrest warrant has been issued for an "Islamic doctor" who put the lives of several coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) patients and the public in danger. The self-proclaimed doctor administered a "miracle cure" which he called the "Perfume of the Prophet" to the patients one of who, a young man, died three days later.
Morteza Kohansal, a low-level cleric, posted a video of himself on social media showing him asking for patients' permission to administer the cure to them. The video shows him removing their protective masks and rubbing the perfume under their noses with unprotected, unsanitized fingers. He claimed that the "Perfume of the Prophet" would make them sneeze and heal from the virus.
According to the Prosecutor of Anzali, a port city in the coronavirus-stricken Gilan Province, the arrest warrant was issued "in coordination with the Prosecutor of the Special Clerical Court". Clerics in Iran can only be tried by the Special Clerical Court which is independent of the country's Judiciary and generally holds its trials behind closed doors.
The self-professed "Islamic doctor" offering his treatment with "Perfume of the Prophet" to coronavirus patients.
The Prosecutor of Anzali claimed that Kohansal had sneaked into the patients' rooms without authorization.
The self-confessed advocates and practitioners of "Islamic medicine" many of who are clerics use ancient formulas, supposedly used by the Prophet and his successors, as well special prayers to heal their patients.
Iran's Supreme Leader is an advocate of a traditional school of medicine which is now often referred to as "Islamic-Iranian medicine". Those who advocate and practice this school enjoy state-funded propaganda and the protection of the hardliner-dominated Judiciary despite many protests by the country's medical community.
One of the leading figures of the "Islamic Medicine" practitioners who has come to be known as "The Father of the Islamic Medicine in Iran" last week claimed that dropping bitter gourd oil in ears in the morning will prevent infection with coronavirus while another notorious "Islamic doctor" who had caused quite a social uproar by burning a standard medical textbook in January prescribed blocking the anus with a cotton ball dipped in violet oil to ward off the virus when the epidemic spread in the country.
