A dozen videos have surfaced online from Iran, some even shared by pro-regime supporters in the country, which shows pious Muslim devouts in the country licking and kissing the walls and bars of holy shrines to show that they are not afraid of the deadly coronavirus.
In some of the videos, the misguided Iranians could be seen even encouraging young children to lick and kiss the shrines. The videos, it is claimed, were filmed in Qom, which is the epicenter of CoronaVirus in Iran.
Children encouraged to show 'no fear'
"I'm licking this I don't care whatever happens," a man says, "I am not scared of Coronavirus." Another man in the video says: "There are people who say that this shrine spreads the Coronavirus, I'm here to lick the tomb so that I can fall ill. This way, I have removed the viruses," says another.
In another video, a young boy is being encouraged to lick, while a man behind the camera says: "Bravo to this young child for licking all the doors. He's kissing it, licking it, He licked all the doors. We're the ones who will get the virus and our children," a person can be heard saying in the video.
Journalist calls for WHO intervention
Iranian journalist and activist, Masih Alinejad, who shared some of the videos online called upon the World Health Organization(WHO) to intervene immediately. About the incident involving the child licking the shrine walls, Alinejad said: "Not only is this child abuse, but it's also helping the virus spread Iran and to other countries."
The Iranian authorities announced on Saturday that they have the city of Qom under partial lockdown and have begun the process of putting COVID 19 positive cases under quarantine.
Iran, which is technically now the epicenter of coronavirus in the Middle East, in its latest updates, revealed that the number of confirmed cases in the country has almost doubled to 978, with 54 deaths.
In the capital Tehran alone, there were 170 new infections. The World Health Organization has announced that it is preparing to send a larger team to Iran to assist.
There have been scary videos out of Iran - indicating that the situation is much grimmer as it claimed to show Iranians even young children collapsing on streets, subways and malls.
