TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has shut down more than 200 eateries and warned 26,000 people for violating a ban on eating and offering food before sunset during Ramadan, Iran's deputy police chief was quoted as saying.

"Since the beginning of Ramadan more than 26,000 who had eaten in public, or vendors selling food during the day, have received a warning in 27 provinces," Kargozaran newspaper quoted Hossein Zolfaghari as saying.

He added that "208 businesses have been shut down in this regard" during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.

Iranian police issued a stern warning before the September 2 start of Ramadan to crack down on businesses selling food -- with the exception of supermarkets and grocery stores -- before the sunset breaking of the fast.

They also said people eating in public would be confronted.

For more than a year, Iranian police patrols have been ubiquitous on the streets to enforce a nationwide crackdown on appearance and behaviour deemed as immoral or un-Islamic.

NCRI – Brig. Gen. Hossein Zolfaqari, deputy chief of the State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police – said that 26,000 people were stopped on the streets to receive warring citations for not fasting only in the first week of holy month of Ramadan.
"They ate in public during hours of fasting," Zolfazari said. In addition to that number, some 755 restaurants and 766 drivers were ticketed for breaking the fast.

"To that end, there have been 1,029 cases pending for judicial reviews. Some 208 restaurants were shutdown and 376 driver licenses were revoked," Zolfzqari added.

According to mullahs' laws, there is no room for breaking the fast under any circumstances. Whipping in public is a customary punishment for citizens breaking fast earlier than dusk. Many people go through a very difficult period during month of Ramadan.

Widespread arrests of youths not abiding by the suppressive rules are made by the SSF agents in Ramadan.

Reporters Without Borders today called for the release of a Kurdish contributor to national and foreign media, Massud Kurdpoor, who was arrested by intelligence ministry agents at his home in Bukan, Iranian Kurdistan on 7 August 2008. The teacher had been broadcasting regularly on foreign radio stations Voice of America, Radio France International and Deutsche Welle about increased repression and violations of human rights in the region. Kurdpoor was held in solitary confinement for three weeks before being transferred to jail in Mahabad, the main city of Kurdistan. He was charged at the Mahabad revolutionary court on 7 September 2008 with “publicity against the regime during interviews given to foreign and enemy media” without any lawyer in court to represent him. His arrest brings to six the number of Kurdish journalists behind bars in Iran.