In the build-up to Iran’s 1979 revolution, the merchants of Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar, the centuries-old heart of commercial power in the capital, made a fateful decision.
Losing patience with the country’s Pahlavi monarchy — and alarmed by the threat of western-style department stores — the shopkeepers threw their support and money behind the revolutionaries, helping bring the turbaned clerics to power and birthing the Islamic republic.
Nearly five decades later, the Grand Bazaar once again became a venue for unrest, helping start protests over economic distress that spiralled into the biggest domestic challenge in years to the very system the merchants helped create.
The demonstrations started with shopkeepers in Tehran last month, and protesters soon converged at the historic market. Anti-regime slogans such as “death to the dictator” and “freedom, freedom” echoed through the bazaar’s narrow, vaulted alleys as demonstrators clashed with riot police.
Many shops were forced to close by the unrest, while merchants at bazaars in other parts of the country organised brief strikes as the unrest spiralled into mass demonstrations against the regime and some of the worst violence since the revolution.
Though the political influence of the Grand Bazaar’s merchants has long since been surpassed by large conglomerates with links to the regime, the protests at the market were a reminder of the shopkeepers’ symbolic influence.
“Bazaaris are exhausted,” said one bazaar worker, who supports “a big political change” and declined to be named. “But when they stand up, people are encouraged to rise up against injustice. That shows how important the bazaar still is.”
Spread in labyrinthine alleys across more than 100 hectares, the Grand Bazaar’s tens of thousands of shops sell everything from gold and copper to clothes and food.
But Iran’s economic downward spiral — exacerbated by years of US sanctions, mismanagement and Israel’s 12-day war against the country in June — had made doing business prohibitively difficult, merchants said.
The national currency, the rial, has fallen by about 40 per cent since the June conflict and stubbornly high inflation rose above 40 per cent in December.
Naser, who sells imported home appliances at the Grand Bazaar, said he largely stopped trading in recent weeks, shuttering his shop due to the clashes. The decision, he insisted, was not political but born of economic necessity as the volatility of the rial had made trading untenable.
“If I sell what I have now, I won’t be able to restock,” Naser said, adding that he did not know shopkeepers who were actively seeking to overthrow the system. Some merchants believe many protesters came from outside the bazaar.
Many bazaaris have recently raised their prices. The violence, in which human rights groups overseas estimate thousands of people have been killed, has increased logistics costs, while an internet blackout has cut off traders from the outside world.
The demonstrations have stopped in recent days and the bazaar was open under tight security on Wednesday, with riot police heavily deployed and armoured vehicles stationed throughout the area.
Some sections of the bazaar were closed, including gold shops, whose businesses depend on real-time internet access for global market prices. Other businesses were open even though the bazaar was unusually deserted, with only a few customers present.
Naser said a delivery of 15 containers of home appliances that he had ordered from a southern Iranian port arrived safely in Tehran this week despite the protests. “I was worried about the safety of roads and any attacks on trucks, but drivers said it . . . went ahead,” he said.
Tehran’s Grand Bazaar has played an influential role in Iranian politics since it started approximately four centuries ago.
During the so-called Tobacco Protest of 1891-92, merchants joined the Shia clergy to oppose the granting of a tobacco concession to a British company, closing their shops in protest and forcing the Qajar monarchy to cancel the agreement.
Today, sprawling shopping malls have long since eclipsed the bazaars in importance, and real economic power has shifted to state-linked conglomerates and institutions such as the Revolutionary Guards, the elite military force that controls vast commercial empires spanning construction, energy and consumer goods.
Many operate from glass towers in affluent districts in northern Tehran or even abroad, far removed from the dim lanes of the covered market.
“Political leaders climbed the ladder of the bazaar and then kicked it away,” said Saeed Laylaz, a reformist analyst. “Bazaar merchants lost the battle to the oligarchs of the Islamic republic and no longer have major cash flow to use for political purposes.”
Iran’s political leadership, however, has been careful not to openly criticise the merchants. Though many demonstrators have been detained, there have been no confirmed reports of arrests of shopkeepers, and officials have emphasised that traders have legitimate economic grievances, unlike those they have deemed “rioters”.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier this month that the bazaari merchants “are the most loyal” to the political system and “are rightly worried” about currency fluctuations.
But the convergence of domestic and foreign tensions has complicated the situation. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in defence of the protesters, suggesting on Tuesday that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY”. Iran has threatened to retaliate against any American attack.
The prospect of further instability and conflict has alarmed small merchants inside and outside the bazaar, who fear that many businesses could go bankrupt if the unrest drags on, leaving them unable to pay rent and their staff.
“Most shopkeepers are worried about insecurity,” said one merchant in the food trade who did not want to use his name. He emphasised the difficulty of doing business in the current economic climate. “When the dollar rates fluctuate, the whole pricing system collapses and your assets are suddenly worth half as much.
“The bazaar used to be so rich that our workers could buy shops and apartments after some years of work,” he said. “Now, even shopkeepers are struggling to make ends meet. How can a weakened bazaar lead another revolution?”
Additional reporting by Bita Ghaffari in Tehran