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Tehran clamps down on coffee shops
Four bookshops in Tehran this week closed their coffee shops after receiving a 72-hour ultimatum from Iran's Amaken-e Omoomi, a state body governing the retail trade, reports the Guardian. The order has led to the closure of the cafe in one of the city's best-known bookshops, Nashr-e Sales, which has hosted reading sessions by writers, including the Nobel prize-winning Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, and become a popular meeting point for literary types.
Amaken justified the closures by declaring that the coffee shops constituted an illegal "mixing of trades". However, critics suspect the move is aimed at restricting the gathering of intellectuals and educated young people. The closure order comes amid an offensive against liberal trends by the Islamist government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which has included the banning of western books.
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