A man looking at rising prices in Tehran
Business owners in different Tehran districts have closed their shops to show anger at the tumultuous economic situation as the national currency hit historic lows against US dollar in recent days.
A video shared on twitter shows people in Alladdin cell phone center have gathered calling on shop owners to stop doing business.
In Tehran’s Sattar Khan and Nazi Abad neighborhoods the guilds have also closed their stores, social media posts showed.
There are also some reports of gatherings near Tehran Grand Bazaar at the heart of the capital’s commerce district. Some say the government shut down the Internet in area, as often happens during protests.
Some videos on twitter show people chanting anti-regime slogans in Tehran subway stations.
Another video on Twitter showed most businesses closed in the city of Arak in central Iran.
Underground activist groups that have organized popular protests since September had issued a call for demonstrations on Wednesday at bazaars around the country.
The rial, which fell to a low of 500,000 against the US dollar on Monday stayed around the same level.
Officials announced that citizens will not be allowed to buy their annual share of foreign currency from official exchange bureaus, which previously was $2,000 per person, per year. They also said the government will stop providing dollars to banks and official dealers for that purpose.
Meat and other prices shot up, as a general mood of panic emerged over rising inflation in the coming days.