Iran's police target 'book-cafes'

Iranian police have ordered shut and sealed several Tehran bookshops which also provide coffee and snacks to readers, because of what one officer termed "a clash of professions." "Based on the (booksellers) union law, owners of one type of business are not allowed to practise two different professions at the same time," head of Tehran police information, Colonel Mehdi Ahmadi, told AFP on Saturday.According to the state IRNA news agency, six book-cafes have been sealed."It is not possible that they open a cafe-restaurant and give such services beyond their union's job description," Ahmadi said, referring to what have become known as "book-cafes" where people borrow books, relax with a coffee and read.But Farid Moradi of publishers Saales said many other businesses in Iran had coffee shops besides their primary profession. "Many other places such as cinemas, swimming pools and sports clubs have a space for people to hang out and drink coffee... it seems that they (the police) are adopting a different approach" for bookshops, Moradi said."We received a notice to close our book-cafe and we did so within the given deadline," Moradi told AFP, adding that they reported the closure to the union on Wednesday but that police still sealed the shop on Thursday.He said the four-year-old publishing company was now trying to have the seal removed.Alireza Elmi, director of Badragheh Javidan publishers, said that after they shut down their coffee operation they were able to reopen, but the process took two weeks."The person who had come to seal the bookshop responded to my objection by saying 'all the corruption in the country comes out of these book-cafes'," he was quoted by Sarmayeh newspaper as saying.Besides offering a pleasant atmosphere for book lovers, the book-cafes in Tehran also hosted cultural events.Since April, Iran has been pressing ahead with one of its toughest crackdowns in years, warning women about dressing immodestly, targeting "immoral" cafes and seizing illegal satellite dishes.
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