Censorship of Literature in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Politics and Culture Since 1979 by Alireza Abiz

Author:Alireza Abiz [Abiz, Alireza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Iran, Censorship, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Middle Eastern, Political Science, Middle East, History, General
ISBN: 9780755634927
Google: RF4GEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 34696083
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2020-12-10T06:58:04+00:00

Chapter 6

HOW DO WRITERS AND POETS REACT TO CENSORSHIP?

Independent writers and poets in Iran have reacted differently to censorship. Some left the country and started a life in exile. Others preferred to stay but were driven into a self-imposed seclusion. They stopped publishing or even writing. Some others decided to resist censorship and find ways to fight back. Those who stayed and continued writing adopted two distinct policies. On the one hand, they criticized censorship and did whatever they could to show their dissatisfaction publicly. They wrote open letters, signed statements and petitions and tried to organize collective acts of protest. On the other hand, they tried to use every means to publish their work and circumvent censorship. Both of these measures are described in more detail below.

Open Protest

The idea of writing to the authorities and demanding the rights of free speech dates back to pre-Revolution time. The most recent example before the Revolution is probably the letter sent by a group of writers to Premier Abbas Hoveida in June 1977, eighteen months before the victory of the Revolution. Ervand Abrahamian, a historian, writes: ‘The letter denounced the regime for violating the constitution, demanded an end to censorship, protested that SAVAK [the Shah’s secret police] stifled all cultural, intellectual, and artistic activity, and argued that many citizens were in prison for the “crime” of reading books disapproved of by the police’.1

After the Revolution, some writers published open letters demanding civil and democratic rights, and objected to policies such as censorship. One such writer was Ali Akbar Saeedi Sirjani, who published letters addressed to the leader and paid the price with his life. The most important public declaration protesting censorship after the Revolution was that known as the ‘Letter of 134 Writers’ of 1994, initiated by Kānun-e Nevisandegān-e Iran and signed by that number of writers and poets, which became a landmark for the struggle against censorship in Iran. Some of the signatories took back their signature under pressure from the security forces; nevertheless, it remained a document of defiance and resistance. In part of the letter, we read:

We are writers. By this, we mean that we write our feelings, imagination, thoughts, and scholarship in various forms and publish them. It is our natural, social, and civil right to see that our writing – be it poetry or fiction, drama or film script, research or criticism, or the translation of works written by other writers of the world – reach the public in a free and unhampered manner. It is not within the capacity of any person or organization to create obstacles for the publication of these works, under whatever pretext these may be.2

Ali Ashraf Darvishian, a novelist, believes that the huge success of the letter was due to the fact that it came out during a period of absolute silence, a time that no one dared to oppose censorship openly. It was broadcast through satellite television and radio stations overseas, and was hugely copied and distributed inside the country. In an interview with M.

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