Iranian authorities have shut down a cafe-restaurant in northern Tehran for allegedly serving alcohol and permitting dancing, state media reported, the latest in a string of closures targeting businesses accused of violating public morality rules.
Fars News, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, said Café Kariz in the Nahjul-Balagha Park had become “a venue for serving alcoholic drinks, nudity, violation of trade regulations and dancing.”
It said the establishment was sealed by the Public Security Police, urging authorities to “criminalize the serving of alcohol and mixed-gender parties in commercial venues” and to act without leniency against violators or officials suspected of collusion.
Possession and consumption of alcohol are illegal in Iran, carrying punishments ranging from fines and lashings to prison sentences. Despite the ban, underground networks and discreet venues continue to supply alcohol, often at high cost and under strict secrecy, according to both state and independent reports.
Fars said police inspections would continue to target what it called norm-breaking establishments.
In recent weeks, authorities have shuttered several cafés and restaurants across Iran, citing reasons ranging from live music and mixed-gender gatherings to customers failing to observe compulsory hijab.
According to the reformist daily Ham-Mihan, official and unofficial reports indicate that over the past two months around 20 cafés, garden restaurants, and wedding halls in Tehran, Dezful, Hamedan, Kashan, and Maragh in Isfahan province have been closed for what officials described as violations related to women’s dress and mandatory hijab.
In Qom, authorities last week permanently closed a café for operating without a license and hosting live music, while in July the provincial Revolutionary Guards announced the closure of three other cafés over “multiple violations including hijab infractions.”
In Dezful, three popular cafés were sealed in early September for what police described as breaches of hijab regulations.
Javad Mortazavi, who ran a marriage registration office in Behbahan, was in a temporary marriage with his secretary for several years before she married another man.
After her marriage, Mortazavi invited the husband to his office, laced his drink with sedatives, and fatally stabbed him in March 2023, HRANA said.
The cleric was put to death in Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz.
In a 2023 report, Iranian newspaper Etemad said that Mortazavi had invited the woman’s husband to his office under the pretext of handing over a marriage certificate and killed him by poisoning his coffee.
The report said another account suggested he first drugged the man unconscious and then stabbed him to death on a street in Behbahan.
Some reports claimed Mortazavi even led the funeral prayer over the body before burying the victim in a deserted area, according to Etemad.
At least 818 people, including 21 women, have been executed in Iran this year in Iran according to HRANA.
Iran accounted for 64% of all known global executions in 2024, with at least 972 people executed, according to Amnesty International.
Amini, 22, died on September 16, 2022, after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating mandatory hijab rules. Her death sparked months of unrest in which at least 551 protesters, including 68 children, were killed, according to rights groups, and thousands detained.
Sedigheh Vasmaghi, a scholar and writer, said in a video message that Amini’s death was “a spark that triggered a historic movement.” She added: “This movement shifted women from the margins to the center of society and showed that women are no longer sidelined.”
She argued that the protests went beyond hijab rules. “The most important achievement was that women demonstrated their power and changed the thinking of society. Today many men defend women’s rights and believe gender should not be a basis for discrimination,” she said.
Zahra Rahnavard, a Green Movement leader under house arrest, said in a statement that “Iranian women, despite their abilities, are among the most suppressed in the world” due to discriminatory laws and policies.
She described Amini’s death as “a whip across the conscience of the nation” and said the uprising “has given the nation hope for a future free of oppression, backwardness and discrimination.”
Actress Pantea Bahram, banned from working in Iran, reposted a message from Amini’s father and wrote on Instagram: “Your name is a reminder of the beginning of a new era … built with courage, fear, defiance, anger, blood and at times madness. Salute to the girls.”
Another actress barred from work, Katayoun Riahi, criticized the marginalization of dissident artists, writing: “The rule of the game is clear: you are either with us or against us. Elimination is achieved either through defamation or oblivion.” She said younger generations “will not accept these rules” and called for hope in “a brighter future.”
Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and jailed activist, said in an interview that “the movement is alive and ongoing, and its vitality is visible in society’s fabric.”
She said women’s voluntary defiance of hijab rules has weakened state control: “The Islamic Republic no longer has the same power even to hold official events.”
Many with monthly incomes of 200 to 300 million rials ($200-300) can no longer afford routine purchases or modest leisure activities.
One young woman told the paper her salary had risen sixfold in four years but her quality of life had deteriorated. “I clearly struggle to make ends meet each month,” she said, explaining that social outings had shrunk to small gatherings at friends’ homes.
A married couple said they had stopped buying basic items like coffee, while another respondent described cutting back on skin-care products and restaurants out of fear of running out of money before month’s end.
Other interviewees echoed the theme. A newly married couple said that after a short trip to Kish Island in southern Iran, they had no money left for the rest of the month.
Once accustomed to filling their cart with extras at chain stores, they now only buy essentials. A bookstore owner recounted earning 500 million rials ($500) a month but said higher household costs meant “in my youth I am constantly thinking about money problems, not joy.”
A teacher who once traveled frequently told Shargh he could no longer afford even budget trips to neighboring Turkey. Rising rents forced him and his friends to abandon a shared home outside Tehran.
“Even though all of us earn more than last year, our quality of life has clearly gone down,” he said.
Psychological strain
The loss of economic security is driving chronic anxiety among young professionals, psychologist Nasser Ghasemzadeh told Shargh.
He said financial stress discourages marriage and childbearing and undermines collective morale: “A young person who compares himself with peers abroad feels defeated. That sense of failure reduces hope in life.”
Without economic reforms, insecurity will continue to erode both individual mental health and wider social cohesion, he warned.
The problem is rooted in inequality and state neglect, economist Hossein Raghfar told the daily. Wage-earners, unable to offset inflation through pricing power, bear the brunt of rising costs, according to him.
Raghfar cited a 60–70 percent jump in car prices last winter as proof of government failure to regulate markets.
He cautioned that frustration is fueling crime and social unrest. “These young people look at the decision-making system and see it as the main cause of their failures—and to a large extent they are right.”
Once a political force, the middle class now feels powerless, he added, drained of energy for civic engagement by daily financial stress.
The insecurity facing young, educated workers is no longer a private matter but a collective threat to Iran’s social fabric and future stability, Shargh concluded.
Iran faces one of the highest inflation rates in the region. According to the International Monetary Fund's estimates, the annual inflation rate has averaged above 42% since 2020.
Sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement have contributed to widespread economic hardship and market instability as Iran's currency the rial has lost over 90% of its value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
A poll by Iran's leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad last month showed that a vast majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the government's economic policies, as costs of living soar and the value of the Iranian currency slips.
