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January 28, 2025

“Elimination of Minorities from the Literary Scene of Iran/ Rezvaneh Mohammadi”

Narrative literature in Iran has been tangled with the perspective of the majority and their definition of voices and narratives that are of interest to the general society. As a result, communities or individuals who are not considered part of this majority have no place in the literary scene. Marginalized communities in any country not only distance themselves from the circle of power, authority, and wealth, but also have a smaller share in storytelling and the dominant voice of society; from romantic tales to epic and mythical narratives.

This erasure has a causal relationship. It means that to the extent that the minority community has less presence in the literary scene of the larger society, in the same way, the erasure of communities in the minority leads to their exclusion from the collective memory of the country’s stories, because they have a smaller share of the ability to narrate their present, past, and history, which in turn diminishes the cultural depth of countries.

If we look at the eradication of minorities from the literary scene of Iran in a historical context, it can be argued that this approach is usually the result of the collaboration of two influential factors: the authorities of the time and Iranian intellectuals. This is because the culture of eliminating a group of thinkers or minorities from literature and attempting to censor their voices has been more prevalent than the lifespan of the Islamic Republic. For example, classical Persian literature has always been filled with love poems about what was considered taboo, such as homosexuality. Alongside these, there were also depictions of romantic and consensual relationships between two adults of the same gender in many poems. Perhaps the most famous and prominent work that remains in this field is the Nazir and Muzaffar by Bahauddin Bafqi. However, despite its historical significance, this work has not received the necessary attention and has never been included in the curriculum of schools.

The rejection of Iranian intellectuals towards the removal of literature of homosexuals dates back to the last century. For example, Iraj Mirza, who can be considered one of the most well-known writers of his time, strongly opposed homosexuality. In the early 14th century, harsh criticisms from intellectuals such as Iraj Mirza and Hassan Taghizadeh paved the way for this removal. Ahmad Kasravi took a step further and explicitly demanded the removal of poems with homosexual content from textbooks. This process began with the removal of some of Saadi’s poems and, according to Jeanette Afary, a university professor and researcher, led to the prohibition of publishing poems with homosexual themes in the country’s publications. (1)

Although currently homophobia in the media and book publishing in Iran has advanced to the point where not only in the translation of stories into Persian, this part of the story is completely removed or summarized, but even in the translation of scientific books – which are somewhat obliged to preserve the content – offensive phrases and terms are used to refer to homosexuals instead of accurate translation.

Censorship and deletion of a minority from literature, in addition to other damages, will lead to the emergence of self-identity disorders in the new generation belonging to minority communities within the heart of the majority society. Of course, with the death of any language and the elimination of any minority from the scene, a part of this diverse culture and history of Iran will die, and its damage will not be limited to minority communities alone.

In addition, the invisibility of religious minorities such as Zoroastrians, Bahá’ís, and Yarsans in the literary scene not only provides an opportunity for creating or strengthening historical misunderstandings against them, but also has been repeatedly used by the Iranian government to portray these minorities from the perspective of Shia Muslims. Stories and other cultural productions of religious minorities have no other means of dissemination except for references to Shia Imams. In fact, in addition to depriving these minorities of a public platform for accurate expression, it is used as a tool to distort or disrespect their beliefs and convictions. This is not limited to the repeated spread of hatred against other religious minorities such as Bahá’í citizens. Depriving minorities of their narrative, along with constant hatred against them, paves the way for the adoption of more legal restrictions and the consolidation of the current situation.

We are living in a time where mentioning the minority status of a part of society – especially linguistic and ethnic minorities – leads to a flood of accusations; touching on any subject just to say “because we are all Iranians” not only is unnecessary and essential, but also breaks the unity of the majority society. At the same time, while they mock them for telling their stories of exclusion, they do not allow them to come on stage to at least speak out against the lies of the propaganda machine of the government, which is trying to further pollute the waters of discourse. We are in a period where the language and dialect of ethnic minorities are used as a means of humor and producing “satirical” TV and film products; a completely contradictory step to what a society with a variety of languages and dialects like Iran needs.

Although in the past, some parts of literature and folk music from different regions of Iran – especially during the Pahlavi era – were collected by the efforts of some musicians and artists, but by depriving the general society from the collected cultural treasures, it cannot be claimed that this positive action ultimately led to a greater representation of linguistic and ethnic minorities in the country, and only slightly slowed down the death of Iranian languages.

Although damage to any society occurs in different ways on the margins. For example, unlike a small portion of Persian literary literature, homosexuals who have been censored and culturally looted, some existing linguistic minorities are deprived of structured literary literature and written literature, and the elderly are the last carriers of the cultural treasure of oral literature in their regions. There is now an opportunity to publish these cultural products, but for a significant portion of ethnic and linguistic minorities in Iran, this action will only be a sign of preserving a historical site; like preserving a historical artifact such as a pottery left behind in a burned city in museums.

Note:

1- Afari, Zhant, intellectuals and new sexual norms, BBC Persian, 24 Esfand 1390.

Created By: Razvaneh Mohammadi
October 23, 2023

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