Independent Online Edition > Middle East > Iran versus the West: the view from the Tehran bazaar: "The Iranian capital's vast market is the centre of the nation's economy. But President Ahmadinejad's foreign policy, and the sanctions it has provoked, are proving bad for business. By Angus McDowall
Published: 16 February 2007
Bright shafts of daylight breach the corrugated roof above Tehran's grand bazaar and illuminate a scene of near total mayhem. Wholesalers haggle and gossip under woollen astrakhan caps, a boy scampers between the legs of shoppers, a tray of steaming teacups held aloft on one hand, a cleric strides through the throng, his mobile phone pressed beneath the crisp white turban, while porters manoeuvre huge barrows through tight alleyways. The din of trade, money and power echoes to the steel rafters.
The bazaar, a city within a city sprawling across central Tehran, has been at the heart of the Islamic republic since it rose from the ashes of the Shah's monarchy in 1979. In so secretive a world, it is impossible to know the extent of the bazaar's control, but estimates range up to a third of the country's retail market. With its high political connections and long economic reach, some Iranians see the bazaar as the centre of a mafia that permeates the entire state."