Many artists and professionals in the field of art of the country, who were present in the election campaign of “Hassan Rouhani”, as well as those who witnessed the election events from outside, welcomed Rouhani’s cultural and artistic positions, who had nominated himself for the eleventh government of the Islamic Republic. But this welcome seemed to be for an “urgent government”!

Hassan Rouhani’s honeyed month and his election promises did not bear fruit in the cultural arena; neither in the selection of cultural ministers nor in demonstrating a serious determination to fulfill his pre-announced promises.

During the election campaign, Hassan Rouhani touched on sensitive issues that were present in the ninth and tenth governments, such as the traditional conservative approach in the cultural sphere. The discussion of book censorship, music, and cinema were among the topics he mentioned in his conversation with “Arman” newspaper.

Rouhani also mentioned the Journalists’ Association and the closed Cinema House, and in the field of culture, he made efforts to break the taboos. From including Mohammad Reza Shajarian’s voice in a commercial film, to the presence of supportive artistic figures of the Green Movement and imprisoned artists in the advertising campaign, all of these gave hope to the people of culture that the eight-year period of turmoil and, to put it figuratively, the “burnt land” of culture and art is expected to be revived once again.

In the season of introducing ministers, although some speculations were made about introducing Ahmad Masjed Jamei as the Minister of Culture, in the end Ali Jannati was chosen as the precise selection of Mr. Rouhani to be introduced as the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

In the gap between introducing the proposed option of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mr. Jannati “shone brightly”; in two interviews he had with ISNA and Shargh, he spoke to reporters about his cultural ideals. Once again, the cultural community witnessed the repetition of the same promises made by Rouhani during the elections, this time from Jannati’s mouth, albeit in a softer tone. These two conversations were enough to push the most hardline principles of the Stability Front to the opposing side of the Minister of Guidance in parliament, and Hamid Rasaei went to the back of the parliament to oppose Ali Jannati and took a strong stance against his cultural views in these conversations.

With the vote of confidence from the parliament, Ali Jannati expressed his controversial opinion in an interview with Aseman magazine: “Eliminating pre-publication censorship.” In this conversation, he told Alireza Gholami that he does not believe in pre-publication censorship, as it is a form of censorship, and we should trust the publisher and the author. A collection of such opinions have been heard by the people, writers, publishers, and translators for the past 34 years after the Islamic Republic, but have received less attention from the officials of the Islamic Republic.

Following the spread of this conversation, a wave of various reactions emerged in the media, press, and cultural space. Some publishers wrote a letter to the Minister of Guidance in opposition to it, and rejected a part of his statements in which he had called for censorship to be entrusted to publishers.

Shortly after speaking with the weekly magazine “Aseman” and the Minister of Guidance on the sidelines of the government meeting, he rejected his previous statements and retreated from his position in a conversation with the reporter of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

It was from the very first weeks of the new Minister’s arrival at the Kamal Al-Molk Street building that this reality became apparent: the new Minister of Guidance lacks the necessary experience to take on the responsibility of a sensitive ministry such as the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which holds special importance for the leader and other conservatives.

This reality will once again be revealed in the next two months and will also be showcased in other events.

Publishers and professionals in the field of culture believe that in the past eight years, not only did the previous dominant trend in the Ministry of Culture, with their personal preferences, impose irreparable cultural damages on the country, but they also tried to secure their presence in the cultural sphere by placing their trusted individuals in government-affiliated institutions or pseudo-private companies, in case they were to lose power. This is why in these eight years, licenses were issued for private and pseudo-governmental institutions for the government’s ideological allies and conservatives, and as a result, a significant portion of the country’s cultural budget was spent.

The topic that was brought up by the people of the cultural community in the first days of Ali Jannati’s tenure as a demand, was the clarification of the responsibilities of the numerous government foundations and organizations in the field of art, culture, and literature. With the absorption of non-governmental and independent activities in the past eight years, they were occupied with policy-making for cultural fields and attracting and absorbing cultural and artistic budgets from the Ministry of Guidance.

Institutions such as the Foundation of Storytelling Literature, whose function was to attract billions of rials of government funding without having a clear output or producing a clear cultural impact in the field of storytelling literature, were among them; one of which was the collection under the supervision of Mohammad Reza Sarshar. On the other hand, the Writers’ Association, which was supposed to play the role of an alternative to the government and the Iranian Writers’ Association, failed in its goals and with the dismissal of Mohammad Reza Sarshar from the board of directors in the second term of Ahmadinejad’s government, was able to survive once again with the injection of government budgets.

In summary, this series of movements was intended to be a substitute for independent, non-governmental and popular activities in the field of literature and culture that had formed in previous years and were banned during the Ahmadinejad era.

Although the people of culture and literature did not show much support for this change in government, the artists, especially filmmakers, were able to reclaim their homes. Prior to this, the Minister of Culture and Guidance had once again responded to a reporter’s question about the reopening of cinemas by saying that instead of one cinema, we may have two cinemas. This response sparked a wave of ridicule against Ali Jannati in the film community, but in the end, Iranian filmmakers were able to unseal their homes and enter their courtyard on National Cinema Day.

Although the pressure to remove the twelfth board of directors of the Cinema House was so strong that Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour could not resist it. Despite the promises made by the eleventh government to reopen the Cinema House, the issue of entrusting the supervision of films and cinema to the people of this profession remained on the ground and “our protector is willing” in this field, the cinema organization is still a government institution for policy-making and implementation in the field of cinema under the presidency of the president. However, Jafar Panahi has been deprived of filmmaking and leaving the country for 20 years and Iranian documentary filmmakers are still being detained by security forces upon entering the country.

In the field of music, once again we witnessed self-indulgence in canceling pop and even traditional music concerts. In the first three months of Rouhani’s government, at least 12 concert cancellations were reported by state news agencies and media outlets.

Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Hossein Zaman, and Arya Aramnejad are among the singers of various styles who are still officially considered banned. Alongside them, many others in this art are still underground. Although the selection of the artistic deputy has caused dissatisfaction among some groups, others have also evaluated Ali Jannati’s appointment positively due to his cultural background.

In this field, the head of the music house raised a protest and launched a wave of threats and pressure against the Pirnia family, which forced him to resign. However, in a rare event, Ali Jenti came to the field and defended the Pirnia family, arguing that the sanctity of women’s solo singing is only seen as a problem by some Islamic scholars because of the corruptions surrounding it, and if women’s solo singing is free from corruption and extravagance, there is no issue with it.

Ali Jannati’s statement was enough to once again raise the wave of protest against him from Qom and the holy city of Shiraz; once again, another careless remark from the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance sparked a clash between him and the conservatives who had been in control of the country’s culture and art for eight years.

If we take another look at the field of culture and books, the delayed selection of the Deputy of Culture, which is one of the most sensitive responsibilities in the Ministry of Guidance, shows hesitation in finding a suitable option for this position. But what raised the voices of the cultural people the most was the remaining of the previous officials responsible for censorship in their seats. One of these figures, who has many opponents among professional publishers and banned writers, is Elhiyari, the conservative head and close to the house of Mosbah Yazdi in the Book Administration.

Not fulfilling the promise of accountability by the censorship department, the one-sided relationship between publishers and writers with the censorship department, the possibility of reconsideration regarding the announced inspection for book censorship, and the possibility of resuming the activities of publishers whose publishing licenses have been revoked or suspended in the past eight years, are among the cultural promises that remain unfulfilled in the file of demands from the book community, and are still being ignored!

At the end, we must remember the late, blessed member of the Iranian Journalists Association, who, although Hassan Rouhani mentioned him at least twice during his election campaigns and promised to open him up to the media, did not fulfill this promise and chose not to mention him in his 100-day government report on television.

In the field of media, although the threat of cutting the allocation of independent media subsidies is still hanging over the heads of journalists like the sword of Damocles, the worst action was the performance of the Media Supervisory Board during the closure of the newspapers Bahar, Nabod, and Etemad. The lack of necessary determination in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to prevent the closure of newspapers such as Nashat, Ham-Mihan, and Tose’e was also concerning. On the other hand, many journalists are still serving their sentences from the year 1388.

In this same field of the Ministry of Guidance, which had promised to reconsider its policies on filtering in the committee, it once again retreated from its position.

In an accelerated evaluation of the first three months of Hassan Rouhani’s government, part of his cultural record can be positively evaluated and another part negatively. The most important positive event in this section so far has been the reopening of cinemas.

Iranians have a proverb that says “One flower does not make a spring”, but we have heard that in Japanese culture there is a proverb that says “Spring begins with one flower.” If we are not hasty, perhaps three months may be enough time to achieve these few promises, but undoubtedly, compensating for some of the losses of the past eight years may require just as much time.