The run-up to Persian new year should be one of the busiest periods for shopkeepers in the vaulted streets of Tehran’s grand bazaar, the centre of commerce in the Iranian capital. But in the days before Nowruz, the biggest celebration in the Iranian calendar, there is scarcely a customer in sight. “Look. You can play football in the bazaar now,” joked Hamid, whose clothes shop has almost no customers. A bazaar usually noisy with vendors shouting to gain customers’ attention has gone almost eerily quiet.
“For 11 months, we struggled to keep the business going,” said Hamid. “We hoped to compensate for our losses in the pre-Nowruz market, which normally should be so busy that you cannot find space to drop a needle.” Iranian new year, on March 20, is a time of widespread celebration but as authorities ask people to self-isolate to protect themselves from coronavirus, this year will be one of the quietest in living memory.
With Iran one of the countries hardest hit by the virus – so far 429 people have died in the Islamic republic and more than 10,000 have tested positive – people will be staying home instead of travelling to visit their family or going to parties. “What kind of Nowruz is this when we won’t go anywhere, no one comes to see us, shopping centres are infected and everyone says nuts could transmit the virus,” said Razieh, 44, a housewife. “My husband and I will only see our parents and follow coronavirus news.”
After a year of crises – there have been widespread protests at rising fuel prices, a brutal crackdown, the assassination of revered military commander Qassem Soleimani and the mistaken shooting down of a civilian aeroplane that killed 176 people – many in Iran had been particularly looking forward to the new year celebrations, also known as Eid.
“After so many horrible things this year, I was looking forward to Eid to let my brain switch off a bit from bad news,” said Parvin, a mother of two teenage boys who has been forced to cancel their one-week holiday in the northeastern city of Mashhad for fear of contracting coronavirus. “Now, I’m stuck at home feeling more exhausted emotionally and sick of disinfecting everything.”