The New York Times – A strike that began last week at the gold and textile sections of the bazaar in Tehran as a protest against a government plan to increase the income tax on merchants grew on Tuesday to other sections, according to the Web site Khabar Online.
The strike, the second major protest since 1979 at the bazaar, which had traditionally sided with the government, began after rumors circulated that the government planned to increase taxes up to 70 percent. It has continued despite government efforts to reach a compromise with the merchants by lowering the planned tax increase to 30 percent last week and to 15 percent on Monday.
