The suspicion surrounding the internet has increased since the disputed election victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

The internet has long been viewed with suspicion by Iran's Islamic regime: a drive to stifle dissent has seen online speeds slowed to a crawl, websites hacked and filtered, email accounts monitored and a special police force formed to detect internet "crime". But amid a technophobia that has intensified in the face of continuing opposition protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, officials have now found one cyberspace activity they approve of: e-shopping.

A state-linked technology group has established the country's first online supermarket aimed at revolutionising the shopping experience in a country generally lacking the gleaming emporiums that can be found elsewhere.

Meydoonak.com is offering 2,500 grocery and household items at competitive prices. The supermarket will initially cover Tehran and operate from 8am till midnight six days a week excluding Fridays, the Islamic day of rest.

Managers believe they can woo customers with a home delivery service which is designed to liberate consumers from the chore of shopping in the city's notoriously traffic-congested streets.

The supermarket has been launched by the Rouyesh Technical Centre, a group linked to a state-run body, Jahad-e Daneshgahi, which has promoted a host of other hi-tech developments, including animal cloning.

The embrace of e-commerce contrasts with a generally hostile official attitude to the internet among Iran's theocratic leadership. The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders has included Iran among the world's 13 worst enemies of the internet.

In recent months Iran has filtered several opposition websites as well as social networking sites such as Facebook in an intensive effort to silence the criticism that greeted Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory last June.