Iran’s repressive regime is marking another target in public life. Tehran police announced stricter enforcement against cafes in the capital, warning business owners against serving hookah, playing live music, or allowing dancing on the premises.
Ali Rafiei, head of Tehran’s business oversight police, warned that cafes violating the new guidelines could face enforcement action. If business owners don’t comply with the orders, he said, “the police will handle it”—with possible measures including shutting down the business and revoking its license.
The new orders join the regime’s sweeping enforcement campaign against businesses that allow violations of the country’s religious coercion laws. In recent months, dozens of businesses have been shut down after women and young women were seen in them without hijab or after authorities determined they violated “Islamic norms.”
Cafes have become in recent years one of the spaces where social change in Iran is most visible, particularly since the wave of protests that erupted following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Many Iranian women continue to appear in public without head coverings, while the regime tries to restore enforcement through direct pressure on business owners as well.