The fears and hopes of the publisher and writer.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad handed over the responsibility of presidency to his successor, Hassan Rouhani, while leaving behind a lot of destruction in various fields, including culture.

But what we are facing in the field of books and publishing is a “burnt land”. According to many activists in this field, the damages in the book industry are irreparable in many aspects.

“We have seen the Mirsali period, where despite all the difficulties, we managed to survive culturally, but now we have no hope of continuing our cultural life. With over thirty years of experience, I know which books can be published. According to the law, no one can review and censor a book before it is published. The decision of what to remove and edit in a book is up to the censor’s taste. The current censorship is a form of “insult”. We should not be afraid of the reading community, but we should be afraid of the community that does not read books.” These words are from Shahla Lahiji, the first female publisher in Iran and one of the most experienced publishers who may now breathe a sigh of relief with Ahmadinejad’s departure. But to follow the course of this cultural destruction, you must wait until the end of this article.

When Commander “Mohammad Hossein Safar Herandi” went from the building of “Kayhan Newspaper” to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Baharestan Square, the number of published book titles in the year was more than 65,000 (according to statistics from the Book House Institute). However, today the number of published book titles in the year is less than 40,000. Apart from the slight decline in book publishing in the country, we have also witnessed a decline in the per capita reading rate in Iran, which has a direct relationship with the tragedy that has occurred in the book industry in the past eight years.

Most people prefer to obtain a book they are looking for in its original and uncensored form through virtual spaces and are less inclined towards works that are removed from official channels. Censorship has led to a decrease in the quality of literary works. Censorship and inspection are inhibiting factors in the growth of literature. Pre-publication censorship is a very wrong practice. If supervision is necessary, it is natural that it takes place after publication, like in many other parts of the world… They have read my poems line by line and said that this word should be removed.

This pain in the heart of Abdoljabar Kakayi, the war poet, is a reflection of the current situation, which has also brought out the voice of protest in him and many of his peers.

When Sardar Safar Harendi leaned on the chair of the Minister of Culture, in those early days, he summoned “Mohammad Javad Moradi Nia”, the head of the Book Department of the Ministry of Guidance (responsible for book censorship in Iran), and in a brief conversation, asked Moradi Nia to devise a plan to shut down the activities of 10 publishers in the short term.

“Sardar” tells the head of the Book Department, “Create a program for me to publish Cheshme, Ghoghnoos, Salas, Roshangaran, and Women’s Studies, Ney, Tarh-e Now, Kavir, Gam-e Now, Agah, and Akhtar to be suspended.

The decision that is met with opposition from Moradi and leads to his resignation and departure from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. However, Sardar’s intentions, as per Mohsen Parviz, during his four-year tenure as the head of book censorship, have been to suppress and limit the actions of the community, and many publishers who were targeted by this cultural commander have been forced to shut down due to the revocation of their licenses, removal of subsidies and paper, denial of publishing permits, and increasing pressure from the publishing industry.

Through examining the events of the first weeks of the ninth government’s inauguration, we come to a meeting between the leadership of the Islamic Republic, the Minister of Guidance, and the officials of this ministry, where signs of a determined effort to systematically eliminate and sideline experienced, professional and influential publishers can be seen.

In November 2005, the leader discussed with the Minister of Culture and his associates about the “necessity of developing a program to achieve the cultural ideals upon which the Islamic Republic is built, and which have not yet been fully implemented in society.”

Ayatollah Khamenei continues by showing a green light to the censors and says, “Book censorship is not only an obstacle, but a necessity. Books, as the nourishment of society’s soul, must be healthy; the approval of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance instills trust in the people towards such a commodity.”

This is how the cutting and blocking of publishers and activists with a history in the book industry takes place. After 6 months of the ninth government’s inauguration, no book permits are issued at all. The Ministry of Guidance declares that it does not accept the activities of previous governments in the book industry and the regulations for issuing publishing permits must be reconsidered. This is how more than 100 publishers in the country face obstacles and censorship in publishing thousands of titles, and book publishing is completely disrupted.

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Now the time for the Tehran International Book Fair is near. Many professional publishers in the country are facing obstacles in their activities. In this most important cultural event of the country and this reputable cultural festival, their hands are empty. Even worse, publishers are facing uncertainty in organizing the book fair. With only one month left until the book fair, the location of the fair is still unknown. Ahmadinejad, as the head of the government, is barely granting permission for the book fair to be held in the permanent location of Tehran’s fairs. Publishers are under pressure from all sides. They have neither a license to publish a book nor paper for publishing.

Although Safar Harandi did not spare any effort to censor and pressure the writer and publisher, on the other hand, he and his colleagues in the Ministry of Culture and other institutions of the Islamic Republic tried to provide the most government resources, subsidies, and cultural support to publishers close to themselves.

Until the arrival of General “Harendi” to the Ministry of Guidance, weekly reports on book purchases were published, but Harendi put a stop to this. With the departure of the “Book House” institution from the organizational chart, the Ministry of Guidance paved the way for economic corruption in this cultural institution in favor of its allies. Paper subsidies were taken from private and independent publishers and given to state publishers who were aligned with the principles of the government. Book censorship during the Ahmadinejad government went so far that the only weakness he admitted in his famous televised debate with Mir Hossein Mousavi was in this area.

With the emergence of differences between Saffar Harnedi and Ahmadinejad in Khordad month of 1388, although the commander returned to the barracks, the next Minister of Culture, Mohammad Hosseini, also more or less followed the same policies and strategies. The sword of censorship continued to choke publishers and even writers, and this policy raised the voices of protest from many writers: “The policies of the Book Supervision Administration are not supervision, but rather a prohibition from carrying out activities. Every human being who is killed, I die as a human being and come back to life, and I feel disgusted by the crimes against innocent people, but the policies have tied the hands of writers. I have also written a book about the war and the topic of the Holy Defense, but they do not allow it to be published.” This is the lament of Mahmoud Dolatabadi, who is considered by many cultural figures to be one of the peaks of contemporary literature, but his new

These pressures not only affected alternative and intellectual writers, but also took the mantle of valuable and self-writers. Balqis Suleimani is one of these writers. Someone who also faced difficulties with some of her works.

“Pressure of censorship and the high cost of paper in 1391 (2012-2013) disappointed writers more than ever. This year, when you asked any writer “What’s new?”, they would reply: “My book is waiting for approval from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance… In simpler terms, the literary situation is getting worse year by year… A significant number of our writers have chosen to leave the country to continue their literary activities, and those who have not yet left and continue to write must wait a long time for their work to be published.”

With all the changes in the government, the hope of many publishers, writers, and readers of books in Iran has been ignited. A hope that in the coming months, its correctness or incorrectness will become clear. A group of Iranian publishers, in a letter to the elected president, while listing the damages of recent years in the field of publishing, along with presenting suggestions, have demanded systematic education and research, strengthening of professional and civil publishing institutions, and delegating publishing affairs to its agents, developing economic mechanisms for publishing, including financial and banking facilities, increasing technical capacity for production, drafting laws and regulations, and establishing legal frameworks and updating these laws, informing based on real data of the publishing community, and creating a healthy competitive environment, free from inequality in the use of infrastructure.

In addition, while outlining the executive solutions, they specifically called for the establishment of a unified “professional organization” for public and specialized publishers to address the disorganization in the country’s publishing sector, particularly in the fields of culture, art, and science, so that the publishing process can be fully delegated to that organization.