Tehran grand bazaar closes after nearly 50 years.
The shopkeepers of Tehran grand bazaar closed down shops on Monday morning in protest. The protest which started at the grand bazaar soon spread to nearby neighborhoods.
Ebtekar reported that the shopkeepers were joined by other store owners who had closed their shops since a day ago and headed towards the Parliament building. These protest were not isolated to Tehran and other cities such as Shahryar, Qeshm and Bandar Abbas saw similar protests.
The problem is shop keepers in bazaar are either afraid to sell their goods or if they do sell, they are unable to restock their supplies. The shop owners have said that they were reluctant to close down shops out of fear that some would abuse the situation. They added that they did not want to disrupt the market or upset people with their actions.
They asked that the economic situation which has damaged the bazaar be rectified as the current situation has caused massive losses to the people. Only economic stability can return peace to the bazaar.
“The demands of the shop keepers is reasonable and they want the currency market to finally be stabilized”, said the Head of the Tehran Bazaar Central Board, Abdollah Esfandiari.
He also rejected claims that the protest had been pre-arranged adding: “if we sell something for 5000 tomans today, we are forced to restock it at 7000 tomans a few days later which causes loss and thus nobody is willing to sell anything”.
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