At least 26 cafés in Tehran have been shut down by police citing violations such as “the inappropriate hijab” of customers.
The Shahrvand daily wrote on Saturday November 22 that this is an unprecedented wave of police action against Tehran cafés.
Mohammad, a café owner on Karim Khan Street, says last Saturday police arrived at his establishment and closed it down, citing “non-compliance of certain regulations.”
The report on Shahrvand adds that “inappropriate hijab of customers, smoking, and absence of adequate visibility for security checks” have been cited as some of the reasons for closing down cafés.
Shahrvand goes on to add that this is not the first time that police raids on Tehran cafés have made headlines; however, this time the targets are among the city’s “most famous and most frequented” cafés, such as Gandom, Moon, Lorca and Kiosk.
Last July, the police shut down some cafés for showing customers the game between Iran and Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup.
