NCRI – On Saturday morning, October 1st, in their 62nd day of strike, thousands of textile merchants and shop owners gathered around Malek Mosque to protest Iranian regime’s plundering tax law. To prevent this called for gathering of bazaar shop owners, the clerical regime had stationed great number of repressive forces in Ark Square since Friday night and had imposed its control on the area. On Saturday morning, groups of anti-riot and security forces, together with plainclothes agents prevented ordinary people from joining the shop owners arresting a number of women and youth.
This gathering took place at a time when Iranian regime’s elements in the textile union had posted flyers on the walls around Malek Mosque falsely claiming that subsequent to an agreement with the government, textile shops would reopen on Saturday morning. These elements also showed up on Saturday morning at the place of gathering and repeated their false claims trying to coerce the bazaar shop owners to end their strike and to disperse.
Also on Wednesday, September 28, thousands of bazaar shop owners staged a demonstration to protest heavy taxes by the mullahs. On this day, many other shop owners, including socks merchants, in their solidarity with textile shop owners, refrained from opening their shops.
This protest movement by textile merchants and shop owners began on August 1st. They demanded the annulment of the 4% tax on the added value of their property, annulment of their fines for delayed tax payments, and revision of their business licenses.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 2, 2011