This is a picture of a beautiful flower.
Reza Najafi

The 30th Tehran International Book Fair was held from the 13th to the 23rd of Ordibehesht this year at a location known as “City of Sun” with the slogan “Let’s Read One More Book”. In this fair, 2,782 domestic and foreign publishers displayed their books in an area of 135,000 square meters.

It is said that 2,643 publishers participated in the domestic section and 139 publishers from 110 countries participated in the foreign section.

In this period, the number of domestic publishers has increased and the allocated area for these publishers has been announced to be 30,000 square meters; foreign publishers also offered 47,234 titles of Latin books and 150,144 Arabic books.

The designated space for Latin and Arabic publishers was also announced to be two thousand and 333 and two thousand and 85 square meters respectively. According to officials, this year’s number of visitors (despite the heated market of presidential election disputes), book sales, and the number of participating publishers have increased compared to previous years.

Apart from statistics and numbers, we try to explore the news related to this exhibition and in this note, we will mention the most important highlights of this exhibition.

First: This year, for the second year, the book fair was held in the city of Aftab, located in the south of Tehran, near the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This was not the first time the location of the fair had changed, but it did not cause much discussion. We know that for many years, this location had been the permanent venue for book fairs in the country, which had become a tradition for officials and a nostalgic event for book lovers. The relocation of the Tehran International Book Fair to the city mosque during the Ahmadinejad government was met with criticism and suspicion by government critics, who accused the government of making a political move. Especially since the government at the time had planned to hold the foreign and domestic publishers and the press fair, which had always been held simultaneously at the book fair, in a different location. However, due to pressure from publishers, the press, and critics, the Ministry of Culture and

“این عکس یک منظره زیبا از کوهستان است.”

“This photo is a beautiful landscape of the mountains.”
Flooded Area at Tehran Book Fair – Photo of the World of Economy

The second change was the relocation of the exhibition from the mosque to Shahr-e Aftab (Sun City); although it was not an ideal idea, it was considered a step forward and more suitable than the Tehran mosque. However, since the management of Shahr-e Aftab belongs to the Tehran municipality – which is headed by one of President Rouhani’s rivals – the concerns were not completely resolved. For example, during the heavy rains that occurred during the exhibition, publishers suffered approximately two hundred million tomans in damages. This incident sparked some criticism of the performance of the municipality. For example, the spokesperson for the 36th Tehran International Book Fair, in response to the events that took place in Shahr-e Aftab due to the rain, criticized the Shahr-e Aftab complex affiliated with the Tehran municipality and apologized to publishers and visitors, saying: “According to the agreement made for the use of Shahr-e Aftab for the book fair, the equ

He continued: “In detailed discussions regarding preparations in various stages, despite serious concerns due to the flooding issues in the exhibition halls last year, the municipality and the city of Aftab had given full assurance that we will not witness a repeat of these problems in the current exhibition period. It was expected that, based on the events of the previous year and expert discussions, proper measures would be taken to address this concern.”

It is worth mentioning that the Tehran Municipality also took responsibility for the damages and paid for its expenses.

Second: One of the features of the recent exhibition was the effort to strengthen the international dimension of this exhibition. For example, in this exhibition, we witnessed the presence of a “guest country” and a “guest city”; something that is common in foreign exhibitions such as the Frankfurt Book Fair, but for the first time and perhaps inspired by similar exhibitions around the world, it was implemented in the Tehran Book Fair. In this regard, Salehi, the Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, said in a news interview: “This year, we had significant changes in terms of the forms of presence of foreign guests and the number of programs. New formats were added to the form of foreign guest presence. In the special guest section of the book fair, Italy was the special guest this year, but two new formats were also added, the first being the guest city, which was not present in previous years.”

Salehi continued: “The Policy Council of the Book Fair emphasized that the guest city should be from regions within the cultural and civilizational scope of Iran. This year, Istanbul was the first guest city to have a few writers and an active booth at the fair.”

He also said, “The second format and form that we experienced in the international section was the discussion of the Tehran Book Fair. Being able to invite those who are active in the field of Iranian and Persian publishing and are interested in this field through the Tehran Book Fair, and this visit being an opportunity for them to connect with other writers and publishers.”

It should be noted that it has also been announced that every day, an exhibition will be named after a province and a country, and on that day, a special program, session, and ceremony will be held in accordance with the customs of different ethnic groups and nationalities.

Third: Some publishers were deprived of attending the book fair. This is not a new issue and has even been enforced more strictly in previous governments. However, it should be noted that this year, some publishers were also faced with this deprivation. Amirzadeh, the spokesperson for the policy-making council of the recent Tehran Book Fair, said: “From the beginning of the fair, 227 votes were issued, according to which 156 publishers who did not comply with the rights of their colleagues and committed violations were deprived of attending the future fair. Out of the 156 publishers deprived of the fair, 146 violations were related to the presentation and sale of other publishers’ works, and these centers had more than 70% of their booth content related to the works of other publishers. The committee for addressing publishers’ violations dealt with them without any leniency and presented their decisions to these distribution centers in the last hour of the last day of the fair, along with a convincing, legal

In his news interview, this official added: “Out of all these votes, 39 cases out of 227 criticized the use of electronic cards, which were dealt with accordingly.”

The spokesperson of the Policy Council also stated: “59 cases of book collection, filing and written warning, 156 cases of written warning, being banned from participating in the Tehran Book Fair and provincial book fairs, seven cases of closure until the end of the fair, and five cases of one-day closure have been reported.”

He criticized the use of credit cards, disregard for Islamic principles, selling books without permission and identification, and presenting works by other publishers as examples of violations.

Fourth: Collecting a book called “The Last Prime Minister” related to Mir-Hossein Mousavi was one of the controversial issues in this book fair. Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabaei, the director of the media committee of Tehran Book Fair, said to reporters about the collection of the book “The Last Prime Minister” from Shahid Kazemi Publications: “The book was not collected, but its distribution was temporarily suspended due to sensitivities caused by its title and its timing with the elections, which required the book to be re-evaluated.”

He also emphasized that the book has been reviewed and is planned to be re-released.

Fifth: One of the most controversial issues that happened this year and also in last year’s exhibition, was the allocation of a booth called “Defenders of the Shrine” at the Tehran International Book Fair to promote the presence of Iranian military forces in Syria. The allocation of such a booth at an exhibition dedicated to books received numerous criticisms. However, despite these criticisms, we were once again witness to the presence of this booth at the Tehran Book Fair this year; although the booth officials were dissatisfied and complained about the services and facilities provided by the exhibition officials.

It is worth mentioning that last year, the booth was set up in an area of approximately 600 square meters, and this year it was set up in an area of 800 square meters. However, Mehdi Rahmani, the head of the Defenders of the Shrine exhibition, in an interview with reporters, referring to what he called the lack of attention from the officials of the 30th Book Fair, said: “Unfortunately, this year’s exhibition is located in an unsuitable place, which has resulted in fewer visitors and a large number of promotional banners for the Defenders of the Shrine exhibition have been removed after installation, which is a matter of concern and does not honor the martyrs of the defenders of the shrine.”

“این عکس یک منظره زیبا از کوهستان است که در آن آسمان آبی و ابرهای سفید پراکنده شده اند.”

“This photo is a beautiful landscape of a mountain where the blue sky and scattered white clouds can be seen.”
A souvenir photo at the Defenders of the Shrine booth at the Tehran Book Fair – Photo from Tasnim.

Rahmani stated about the sections of this exhibition: “At the entrance, visitors are faced with the special unit booth, which pays tribute to seven martyrs of the holy shrine. Then, by visiting the photography booth, they can take a souvenir photo in combat attire and until their photo is ready, they can visit the Star of Wishes hall, which has been added to the exhibition this year and focuses on the concept of the promised Mahdi.”

Sixth: One of the interesting points of this Tehran Book Fair is the absence of the President at the opening ceremony and the absence of national officials at the closing ceremony. Apparently, the coincidence of the presidential election competition with the holding of this exhibition has not made this occasion insignificant.

Seventh: The seventh act of this play, although mentioned at the end, is undoubtedly considered the most important act of the story. The officials of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance not only entrusted the main executive matters of this exhibition to the publishers and the Publishers’ Union, but also promised to be ready next year to hand over all the executive affairs of the Tehran Book Fair to the publishers’ guild and oversee it themselves.

In this regard, the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Ministry of Guidance announced: “Starting tomorrow, we will ask the Publishers and Booksellers Union of Tehran and the Familiar Union to press the key for the 31st exhibition and plan for this area with a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the 30th exhibition.”

He stated: “Currently, there are two national unions in charge of planning the country’s publishing exhibition, and starting tomorrow, the seven-member council of these two unions can begin the initial planning for next year’s exhibition. We are waiting for our colleagues in the industry to start their meetings tomorrow and present their clear plans for the future exhibition to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.”

It is not clear how much freedom of action will be given to the Publishers and Booksellers Union and how much it will contradict with the supervision of the officials of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in implementing the exhibition; but in any case, if this promise is fulfilled, it will be a significant step in strengthening the publishing profession in the country and reducing the dominance of government institutions.

Note:

The statistics and quotes mentioned in this text are all taken from the publications and official websites of the “Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Book House”.