Iran establishment under pressure after string of Grand Bazaar protests in Tehran
Citizens complain of mismanagement by Iranian leaders including their funding of proxies in regional wars
Earlier this week, protests in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar forced it to closed its doors temporarily for the first time since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
The protesters were complaining of harsh economic conditions, corruption and lack of freedom.
Initially, the protests focused on the rising prices of goods, but then turned political with protesters slamming Iran’s policies in the country and abroad.
According to Iranian officials, 129 protesters were arrested and authorities say they won’t be released before they are put on trial.
Citizens are complaining of general mismanagement in Iran including its funding of proxies fighting in regional wars and widespread corruption, Khattar Abu Diab from the Paris-based Council on Geopolitics and Perspectives tells Gulf News.
Difficult situation
“All these things are creating a difficult situation in the country which is becoming poorer,” he said.
Around 43 per cent of Iranians now live below the poverty line. “The popular movement runs very deep but has no clear leadership,” Abu Diab said.
Some press reports purport that “forces of conservatism” are behind the Grand Bazaar protests. Analysts point to a link between the religious establishment on one side and the bourgeois traders on the other.
Abu Diab believes that whatever happens in the Grand Bazaar can heavily influence Iran’s political leaders.
In the early 1950s, the bazaar traders did not support the late prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in the face of a coup carried out by the CIA and British intelligence.
Mosaddegh was ousted on August 19, 1953.
In the late seventies, as the Islamic revolution was heating up, a general strike organised by the bazaar merchants paralysed the country and paved the way for the success of the revolution.
“Changes are expected, but in the case of Iran, there are two factors: the timing of the change, and what form it comes in,” said Eman Rajab, a researcher at Cairo-based Al Ahram Strategic Studies Centre.
“For example the Green Movement protests in 2009 were not aimed at bringing down the regime and replacing it with another. “It was a way to express rejection of certain policies. It didn’t go beyond the streets,” Rajab said.