IRAN: Book Fair Shows How Much, and How Little, Has Changed

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ramin Mostaghim

TEHRAN, May 22 2003 (IPS) - An international book fair may be just another event in most countries, but in Iran it is an opportunity to look at the changes that have led to the variety of information and choices available in this Islamic society – as well as the limits to these changes.

A variety of people, from students dressed in westernised clothes to officials allied with both reformist President Mohammad Khatami and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have been going to the 16th Tehran International Book Fair.

Underway from May 14 – 24, the fair, which features the products of publishers from 35 countries, also has a seven?day press festival on the sidelines.

The mix of books, stalls, events, and discussions in the ‘Saraye Goftego’ (Dialogue House) tent highlights the signs of change, the influence of external factors on Iran, and the new tastes of its young people, but are also a reminder of the presence of the state.

This irony prompted Ezat Panahi, the dismissed editor of a government film magazine, to say that events like the book fair give the impression of an air of freedom of information in the country, but is in reality just a momentary taste of it.

”In a country in which people should pay a high price for speaking out their mind, freedom of speech is a one-week formality in a year – and even that week is perilous and contribute to deep-rooted self-censorship,” he said.

At the book fair thus far, newly issued publications appear to show a degree of openness in the mix of western with local stories. There are also heated debates at the Dialogue House tent, but participants also point to what they say are plainclothes police watching and taking pictures of the audience.

At the crowded stands of publishers of children’s books, for instance, many visitors are looking at copies of the short novel ‘Tin Tin and Sindbad’, whose publisher is affiliated to the state-run Islamic Propaganda Organisation.

The book catches attention because it mixes a taboo story – Tin Tin, the Belgian-created cartoon character has a pet dog, and a dog is untouchable for Shiites – with the popular adventures at sea of Sindbad.

Sindbad’s tales are familiar to many Iranian youngsters and were translated into Farsi and Arabic in the Samanid period (820 to 998 A.D.).

Asked about the mix of eastern and western stories in Islamic Iran, where children are expected to take moral pointers from Koranic stories, Aslan Hassan Zadeh, who is in charge of the book stand displaying ‘Tin Tin and Sindbad’, says it is but a reflection of reality and Iran’s inevitable links with the outside world.

”Iranian children and young adults are learning from Hollywood movies and western animation films at home rather than the mullahs’ rhetoric and orations at the mosques, ” he said. ”So even Islamic publishers have to mix Islamic anecdotes with Hollywood stories such as Tarzan , Pink Panther and Tin Tin’s adventures to provide palatable food for the post-Islamic generation.”

The fair also featured venues for discussions that highlighted some of the more sensitive issues in Iran today – the ongoing tussle between the conservatives and the reformists.

For seven days till Wednesday, the Dialogue House tent at the south-west of the fair became the place for debates between politicians and members of parliament, advocates of reform and sympathisers of Ayatollah Khamenei, and disillusioned and frustrated young and middle-aged people.

Those in the audience, especially the younger people, aired their disappointment with what they called the slow pace of change in Iran despite the efforts of the reformist camp of Khatami, who is now enjoying a second presidential term.

The reformists’ efforts to push for a more open society and media are hindered by the fact that the so-called conservatives hold control of the judiciary branch, law enforcement, security and intelligence services.

Some in the audience reacted with anger when Alireza Alavitabar, a former hostage taker in the 1979 siege of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and a university professor who supports reform within the ruling establishment, advised them not to lose heart and to keep on supporting the reformists.

”Why people should wait for an unknown future and trust your empty promises?” a man in his forties said, standing up angrily. ”Both camps, reformist and conservative, have failed to meet the needs of people and even reformists could not secure their own right of freedom of speech and have ended up in jail.”

The young listeners in the tent applauded and cheered. In response , Alavitabar apologised on behalf of the reformists in the parliament and Cabinet.

One man in this late twenties said, ”If dozens of reformist members of parliament protested against conservatism and ended up in prison, then they would enjoy overwhelming backing from the people.”

To this, Esah Sahrkhiz, 47 , former deputy Islamic guidance and culture minister for the press and moderator of the discussion, replied: ”We cannot advise members of parliament to get themselves in jail ,but we can ask them to keep on struggling for change.” Sahrkhiz is also editor of the reformist weekly ‘Aftab’.

For all the debates at the tent though, one listener said he was not at all convinced that this was real freedom of information in action.

”It is similar to Hyde Park in London, at least inside this not very big tent. But the main difference is that plainclothes policemen are among the audience,” said a 23-year-old man, who declined to reveal his identity.

Pointing to a bearded man with an automatic camera, he insisted that the secret police was busy taking photos of the crowd.

”Ironically, we may have freedom of speech but for sure there is no freedom and life and job security after you deliver a speech,” remarked a high school mathematics teacher.

Outside the tent meantime, domestic newspapers were showing samples of their publications and trying to get as many subscriptions as possible.

But an unimpressed Panahi said: ”In a country in which more than 80 dailies, weeklies, biweeklies and monthlies have been banned since three years ago and dozens of journalists are either in jail or commuting between home and court lobbies of the press courts , the word ‘festival’ is a good example of governmental doublespeak and euphemisms regarding press issues”.