TEHRAN (AFP)- Around 100 Iranian teahouse owners staged a rally on Sunday in protest at a ban on water pipes which they said has put their businesses in jeopardy, the state news agency IRNA reported.
"The protesters gathered in front of their union offices in Tehran and urged the authorities to help them with their financial problems after the ban on water pipes," IRNA said, quoting a teahouse union leader.
"As the water pipe accounts for more than 90 percent of income in this business, the ban in recent weeks has made many shops only semi-active," said the union leader, identified only by his last name of Alaee.
Iran is enforcing a long-standing law banning smoking in public places. As well as cigarette smoking, the authorities are also cracking down on the use of water pipes, known in Iran as "ghalian" and in other Arab countries as "shisha."
The authorities have shut down about 20 coffee shops in the capital for offering water pipes, Alaee added.
Iran first outlawed water pipes in eateries four years ago on the grounds of hygiene, but the ban was frequently flouted amid sporadic crackdowns.
Traditional teahouses — known in Persian as "ghahve khaneh" (coffeehouse) but which in reality only serve tea — are a familiar element of Iranian life.
Many teahouses in working class and downtown areas offer cheap food such as the traditional stew "abgoosht" and omelettes along with water pipes. They are usually the exclusive preserve of men.
The authorities insist the drive against water pipes is on grounds of health alone, but it comes amid one of the toughest moral crackdowns in years, which has seen thousands of women warned for attire or behaviour deemed un-Islamic.
The clampdown has also targeted trendy coffeeshops, book-cafes and Internet cafes, which are among the few places where young men and women can hang out together in the Islamic republic, which frowns upon the mixing of the sexes.
