Police raid coffee houses and impose mass closures

The campaign has been going on for more than two weeks.  Last week, Colonel Ali-Reza Mehrabi, the director of security in the Tehran police department, said coffee shops had been forcibly closed either for ignoring violations of the dress code or for lacking proper operating licenses.

Other police have said some of the shops were allowing women to smoke hookahs, ignoring the law that limits public smoking of hookahs to men.

The coffee shops have become a popular gathering place for middle class youth.  Many conservatives object that unmarried boys and girls used the coffee shops as a dating venue.

But Ahmadi-nejad objected to the closures.  At a ceremony where he was presenting new school textbooks, he said the police should help citizens make the right choices rather than shutting down restaurants.

News reports have given widely varying statistics on the extent of the crackdown.  One said 87 cafes were shut in raids Saturday.  Women wearing “bad hejab” have been arrested.  No total figures have been released, but one report said 130 women were arrested on Sunday alone.

The coffee shop owners have been ticketed and will be summoned, the police said.  They did not say how many owners were facing discipline.

Ahmadi-nejad has never been happy with police enforcement of the dress code and other “morality” laws.  But it is the Supreme Leader, not the president, who commands the police.

In Ahmadi-nejad’s first press conference after his 2005 election, he was asked if he would tighten enforcement of the dress code and he replied, “I have better things to do.”