In the years 1353-1354, when the Sepah-e Danesh (literally “Knowledge Corps”) was a few years old, it had come to our village. We, the children of the village, had recently learned to read and write. Every now and then, we would see a Land Rover car coming from the city to the village, bringing us books. The passengers in the car were a kind and young couple who would call us over with open arms and give us books for free. Sometimes, they would read books to us and always encouraged us to read. I remember those days vividly, when books had a special smell and the pictures inside would open up a whole new world for us children; a world that was so sweet that we had never even seen it in our dreams. The young couple would also sometimes show us movies, specifically made for children. We, a group of children from the village, would gather around the Land Rover and eagerly watch a movie

I didn’t forget, it was written on the doors of the Land Rover: “Society for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents” and next to it was a picture of a bird sitting on a tree branch that resembled a book; a picture that was very attractive and appealing to us village children. That Land Rover was actually the mobile library of the Society for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents in those years.

History and Objectives of the Establishment of the Association for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents

The Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents was established in December 1965, with the proposal of Leila Arjmand and with the full support of Farah Pahlavi, under the name of a “non-profit” or “non-profit” institution with cultural and artistic goals. Before the revolution, the National Oil Company was a strong financial and intellectual supporter of the Center due to its suitable income and its role in education and training, as well as having a specialized workforce in the field of children and adolescent education. However, after the revolution in 1981, the Center was registered as a company in the Companies Registration Office and Industrial Ownership, and according to the approval of the Prime Minister, its supervision was entrusted to the Ministry of Education and Training. Since then, the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents has continued its activities, but recently, it has been listed as a “loss-making” institution by the government and there are plans to dissolve it.

This organization was founded with the aim of providing necessary facilities for the intellectual and artistic growth of children and adolescents, and helping them develop their talents during their free time. At the beginning, one of its main goals was to cover the needs of children and adolescents from nomadic and rural communities who did not have access to books and were deprived of reading. In the following years, as the organization grew larger and more widespread, it carried out remarkable activities in all parts of the country, creating hundreds of libraries and exhibition halls in fields such as cinema, theater, painting, calligraphy, etc. It also organized various competitions and camps, providing education and coverage for a wide range of urban and rural children and adolescents. In the field of film production and screening, it has made significant progress.

According to what is stated in the constitution of the organization, the purpose of its establishment and expansion can be listed as follows:

• Establishment of centers for providing books and cultural, artistic, and literary education specifically for children and adolescents in the country.

• Procurement and use of audio and visual equipment, provision of educational materials, production, distribution, screening and sale of films and production of children and youth-specific theater.

• “Assisting in the development and promotion of children and young adult literature through encouraging writers, artists, and publishers and collaborating with them.”

• Organizing festivals and exhibitions of literature, art, and culture specifically for children and adolescents.

• Production of entertainment, toys, computer games, etc.

• Creating mobile book units for providing books to children in villages.

• Collaboration with Iranian and non-Iranian institutions that share common goals.

In the constitution of the foundation, it is also emphasized that the organization is non-profit and cultural, and that it is not and has never been intended for commercial profit.

A review of the performance of the Association for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents.

This cultural and artistic institution, by establishing and expanding mobile libraries in urban, rural, and postal areas throughout Iran, and by providing cultural and artistic activities, has established a close relationship with its young audience from the beginning. It is interesting to know that the Society for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults initially intended to build a library in every school, and the first mobile libraries of the society were military trucks, buses, cars, and even horses and carriages that delivered books to the most remote areas of Iran. The publication of dozens of books and music albums, the production of thousands of minutes of animation, short and feature films, documentaries, entertaining puppet shows, and computer-based educational software are among the cultural and artistic activities of the society. The Iran Language Society, after the revolution, is also one of the sub-branches of the society that is engaged in activities and has many branches throughout the country, teaching languages such as English, French, German, and Spanish.

This organization, with over half a century of remarkable activity, has nurtured and developed many elites and intellectuals that deserve contemplation. Filmmakers such as Bahram Beizai, Abbas Kiarostami, Nasser Taghvai, Masoud Kimiai, Amir Naderi, Keyumars Pourahmad, and others began their work with the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents and created their first works with the investment of this great cultural institution, which later became shining figures in the history of Iranian cinema. In addition, a large group of poets, writers, and artists such as Houshang Moradi Kermani, Mostafa Rahmandoust, Nouraldin Zarrin Kelk, Farshid Mesghali, Ali Akbar Sadeghi, and many others also rose to prominence thanks to the investment of the center in the field of art in Iran and left behind valuable works and made valuable contributions to the art and literature of

The Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents was a safe haven for the children of our country for decades. During the days of fear and anxiety of war and the 1960s, this center may have been one of the most important factors in maintaining a relative balance in the lives of a large number of Iranian children in many cities of the country.

Will the government’s decision to isolate the country lead to its closure?

While the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents has been introduced as a “non-profit” cultural institution since its establishment, in a strange move, cultural managers of the government, under the pretext of its being “unprofitable”, intend to close down the libraries of this cultural center or merge them with the national libraries.

Cultural managers of the government, led by Ebrahim Raisi, have claimed that the libraries of the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults are causing losses and must be handed over. This statement also implies that approximately one thousand libraries, with over three thousand staff, which are recognized as the most important and effective institution for children and young adults, have raised and will likely continue to raise the children of this country, will be closed due to lack of profitability.

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the cultural managers of the government, led by Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, view the Children and Youth Intellectual Development Centers as “economic enterprises” that must be profitable. While many may believe that this is just an excuse, with the closure or merger of these centers, these “cultural managers” can easily get rid of the burden of the underperforming centers. It seems that the real goal behind these closures is not about profit and loss, but rather an attempt to redirect the children of deprived areas in Iran towards ideological institutions instead of the centers. However, whatever the goal may be, it is clear that the ill-advised proposal of the Ministry of Guidance once again proves how neglected books and reading are in this country, where not only is there no financial or spiritual support for their improvement, but they are also expected to be profitable and are threatened with extinction. Destroying the foundations of this land and the centers that shape and preserve the

It should be mentioned that within a few hours of its release, this news was met with widespread reactions from writers, activists, and cultural enthusiasts in the field of children’s literature. Some even described it as a major blow to the half-dead state of children’s literature in Iran. Intellectuals and artists insist on continuing the activities of the center according to its usual routine.

The Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents is a unique phenomenon that did not exist in other countries for many years, and according to the testimony of many experts, there is no similar model for this center in the Middle East. In this regard, the idea of establishing this center was a very valuable plan and should have evolved and progressed over the years. However, not only has this not happened, but today even its initial goals have been forgotten and there is a possibility of its dissolution.