NCRI – The strike in the Iranian capital’s Bazaar is still ongoing. Merchants at the Tehran Bazaar launched an extensive strike last Tuesday in protest to tax hikes by the Iranian regime. The merchants have yet to receive word from the regime that it will not go through with the tax increase.
Fabric sellers and shoe makers, as well as the Abbas Abad Bazaar and various shops at Amir Kabir continued with their strike on Sunday. The so-called Kuwaitis Bazaar at Sabzeh Square also joined the strike today.
According to obtained reports, in support of the merchants, people staged demonstrations and protest since the early hours of Sunday in front of the Kuwaitis Bazaar and Reza Bazaar situated at Sabzeh Square. Sidewalks were filled with protestors, while a large number had also gathered in front of the police station despite the scorching heat.
Starting at about 10:00 local time, more people joined protests in front of Reza Bazaar. The main door at Kuwaitis Bazaar and the shops were completely closed. Protests were still ongoing at about noon in front of the Kuwaitis Bazaar.
On Saturday, the Associated Press wrote in a report about the strike, “Tehran's powerful merchants don't need street protests to make their anger known — the sound of shops being locked up and metal grates clanging shut during a wave of anti-tax strikes this week was enough to unsettle Iranian authorities.”
“The closures — with Tehran's expansive bazaar as the epicenter — present another dilemma for Iranian leaders still trying to weigh the fallout from wider U.N. and American sanctions.”
The AP report went on to say, “A sustained fight with the influential merchant class would pull Iran's rulers onto a path littered with warning signs from the past. The bazaar has been the tipping point in popular unrest for more than a century, including the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when merchants pulled their support from the Western-backed monarchy, paving the way for its ouster and the installment of rule by Islamic clerics.”
AP also quoted an analyst as saying, “The merchants seem to be moving away from the government … It's not yet at the point of open confrontation, but there is a sense of a moving away.”
