Iran’s police have sealed shut and reprimanded more than 77,000 stores and restaurants during Ramadan for “failing to observe Ramadan customs” despite the growing unemployment crisis in the country.
In the last 20 days, nearly 3,500 shops and restaurants have been sealed shut only for selling food during the day in Ramadan.
Police Spokesperson Ahmad Nurian said on May 10 that the police had reprimanded more than 52,000 shops during the first half of Ramadan and that 13,343 shop owners were forced to give pledges to “follow Ramadan customs”. In addition to this, 8,257 stores received warnings.
Nurian said that 3,438 stores were sealed shut during this period and that lawsuits had been filed against some of the owners.
In the past few days, the police have continued their crackdown in various provinces, shutting down hundreds of other shops, bringing the total amount of sealed stores to more than 3,500.
The Police Spokesperson said that the reason behind the crackdown was “non-compliance with religious norms” and because locals were eating inside and outside these shops.
The regime has forced thousands of stores and restaurants to close shop despite the growing economic and unemployment crisis aggravated by the COVID-19 outbreak. Most store owners had just recently opened their shops after the regime lifted coronavirus regulations.
Many store owners are in danger of losing their businesses because they have not been able to pay rent, have huge debts, and have lost money due to the spoilage of their goods.
In an April 28 report, the Iranian Parliamentary Research Center said that 2 to 6 million Iranians, many of them workers, would become unemployed due to coronavirus conditions.
This is of course in addition to the millions already unemployed in Iran.
The closure of stores by the police for so-called “religious” reasons, poses a serious threat to the employment and income of thousands of Iranians and will exacerbate the unemployment crisis in Iran.
Source » iranwire