Traditionalist ladies in black chadors and trendy ladies with blonde hair peeling out of their scarves walk into the shop that sells bedroom furniture.
They watch, ask for prices, and then go out.
The owner, Ahmed, 34, looks dejected: "Since last year - he tells ANSA - we have been selling 40 percent less. If we do not reach an agreement with the Americans that frees us from sanctions, we will not succeed. to move forward ".
As Ahmed thinks in many in the Tehran Bazaar, the beating heart of the economy of an Iran that will elect the eighth president of the Islamic Republic tomorrow.
Listen to "Iran in crisis in the vote, the story of the envoy from Tehran" on Spreaker.
Since then US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal three years earlier in 2018, re-imposing heavy sanctions on Iran, the national currency, the rial, has collapsed against the dollar and domestic inflation has begun gallop without brakes. The prices of basic food are rising almost every week, and people are left with little for the superfluous. The situation was further precipitated by Covid, which hit Iran more than any other Middle Eastern country, killing over 80,000. The daily infections are still around 10,000. "The new Biden presidency - says Mohsen Fadavi, manager for Tehran of Habibian, one of the largest national producers based in Isfahan - has reopened the American market to Iranian exports.But the pandemic prevents large Western traders from coming to Tehran to refuel. We have 15 on the waiting list, for when the restrictions are lifted. And the European and American tourists, who were excellent buyers, have disappeared. For now we are shipping carpets with couriers to private customers, in Europe and America, waiting for the storm to pass ".
But walking in the covered alleys and among the open stalls of the Bazaar, one gets the impression that the pandemic is not too scary. On Thursday morning, which precedes the public holiday of Friday, people flock without too much respect for the distance, and someone even comes dangerously close without a mask. However, everyone is more interested in looking at prices than in discussing the presidential election, for which polls predict an abstention of around 60 percent. "I will not vote - Ahmed announces -. There is too much corruption, and too many unfulfilled promises, by all the presidents. People now think that voting or not voting does not change anything". One of his clerk intervenes, saying he is convinced that the result is now decided: "Whether we vote or not, the winner will still be Raisi".
Ebrahim Raisi
, the ultra-conservative head of the judiciary, is given as the favorite in all polls, with about 60 percent of the vote. The other candidates should share the crumbs. Among them, the former commander of the Pasdaran
Mohsen Rezai
and the governor of the Central Bank
Abdolnasser Hemmati
, the only moderate left in the running after the slashing of candidacies by the Council of Guardians, a conservative body controlled by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. . F.
up to a few weeks ago Raisi was even given 70 percent, but it seems that the consensus for him has decreased after three televised debates in which he has not shown himself particularly brilliant. In any case, it should be up to him to resume the indirect negotiations underway in Vienna to try to bring the US back into the nuclear deal. For ultraconservatives, conservatives or reformists, this seems the primary goal. And this seems confirmed by the declarations made a few weeks ago by Raisi that he wants to work for the lifting of the sanctions. Waiting for the events, people continue to walk in the meanders of the Bazaar, mostly limiting themselves to looking and asking the price and then going straight.