Keshavarzian 217Constitutional Revolution, and pro-Mosaddeq and oil nationalization
movement it was a place where gatherings took place, political speeches
were given, opposition literature was distributed, and political rallies
began. In the summer of 1963 protests against the Shah’s White Revolution,
the imprisonment of Ayatollah Khomeini, and clashes with the military
were specifically centered around the bazaar. In addition, specific locations
within the bazaar, such as Shaykh Abdol-Hossain Mosque (also known as
the Azeris’ or Turks’ Mosque) and Chahr Suq-e Bozorg were sites of politi-
cal events in past decades and thus held symbolic meaning.
ore poignantly, these social movements were fueled by several M
meaningful spatial routines. The bazaar closures and strikes in Tehran,
Tabriz, and other cities were effectively used against the Qajar monarchy
in the late nineteenth century and during the Constitutional revolution
to disrupt public life. In 1952 and 1953, bazaaris in Tehran organized
roughly fifty closures of the marketplace as a display of opposition to the
Shah’s policies.^39 Indeed, the bazaar’s support for Mosaddeq was so great
that despite the fact that several clerics defected to the pro-Shah camp,
the overthrow of Mosaddeq and his subsequent military trial, and the
heavy-handed restrictions on student activists by the post-coup govern-
ment, bazaaris formed committees to oppose the coup and continued to
organize marketplace closures to publicize their opposition to the Shah.^40
Three months after the coup, the Shah responded by exiling several of
the bazaar’s organizers and by demolishing parts of its domed roof and
defacing its doors.^41 During the Islamic Revolution, national bazaar clo-
sures to commemorate the 1963 uprising, which itself was partly fueled by
bazaar closures, were coordinated by activists through nation-wide inter-
bazaar commercial networks. As a result the bazaars in Isfahan, Mashhad,
and Tabriz were closed and seventy percent of the Tehran bazaar’s stores
and offices did not open.^42 Of course, closure is effective, especially on
the national level, because it disrupts the economy and impacts the lives
of large numbers of Iranians who are either employees of or consumers
in the marketplaces.^43 Even if one was unaware of the brewing political
foment, the empty bazaar sent a poignant political message to would-be
shoppers, workers, and passers-by.
losures were often coupled with another spatial form of protest: C
the taking of sanctuary, or bast. For instance, economic conflicts between