Protesters in Iran launched a three-day strike on Monday as part of a wave of civil unrest sparked by the September death of an Iranian Kurdish woman detained by the country’s moral police.
Protesters called on shopkeepers across the country to close their stores until Wednesday in order to implement government reforms.
A video posted on social media on Monday showed shops closed in commercial areas of several cities, including Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz and Shiraz, Reuters reported.
About a third of the shops in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar have closed, the Associated Press reported.
Witnesses say riot police were deployed on a large scale in central Tehran on Monday.
Iran’s Attorney General Golam Hossein Mohseni Ejay has ordered the arrest of those who urged shop owners to close their shops.
The strike comes amid turmoil over the status of Iran’s morality police, which enforce strict rules on how women dress.
In a report on Saturday, the semi-official news agency ISNA quoted Iran’s chief prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, who said the moral police had been “closed”.
But activists have expressed doubt that such actions were being taken.By late Sunday, state media Al-Alam said the judiciary to which Montazeri belonged did not oversee the moral police. issued a report.
Government officials have not publicly commented on the matter.
Fewer morality police officers have been seen in Iranian cities in recent weeks, and it has become more common to see women walking through city streets without wearing a hijab, the Associated Press reports. is doing.
Anti-government demonstrations in Iran began after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained by the moral police for not wearing the hijab properly. Her death in police custody led to a wave of protests during which at least 471 people died, human rights groups say.
Some information in this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
