Book sellers in a Tehran street. Undated
Sixty Iranian writers and poets have announced they will publish their works without submission to Islamic Republic censors until such time when censorship stops in Iran.
The announcement titled “We the literary” was published by a Canadian Iranian writer, Fereshteh Molavi, but it is signed by writers from Iran and the diaspora.
The clerical government in Iran requires all books, films and music be submitted for review be censors before publication or screening. Works by artists perceived to have dissident ideas usually get rejected and others are altered to fit the religious and political boundaries of the authoritarian regime. Some books have been in limbo for years, waiting for permission.
The signatories say, “We are regard democratic freedoms, especially freedom of thought and expression as well as freedom to write as our civil and citizenship rights.”
The writers also said that they pledge to undertake their share of duty “in building the Iran of tomorrow.”
More than three hundred Iranian translators in November joined other professional groups expressing their support for the ongoing protest movement against the Islamic Republic.
They announced that they will stand against all types of discrimination and prohibitions that have made life in Iran similar to “mere survival in forced labor camps.”
They also condemned the killing of civilians and children, saying like others in Iran and abroad they stand with “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.