Mahmoud Dowlatabadi: My Civil Rights Have Been Violated for Years

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, an Iranian writer, protested against what he described as the violation of his civil and human rights during a ceremony attended by some officials and cultural authorities of the government, including the Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. According to ISNA, on November 25, Mr. Dowlatabadi stated at a meeting on the occasion of Book Week that his civil and human rights, including the right to work, retirement, insurance for publishing works, and the right to pursue the theft of his cultural works, have been trampled for years. On the same evening (November 25), Mahmoud Dowlatabadi received the "Knight of Arts and Letters of France" at the French embassy in Tehran. The author of the novel "Kelidar" also referred to the publication of the novel "The Colonel's Decline" in Afghanistan, calling this version "fake" and requesting the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to prevent its distribution. "The Colonel's Decline" was written in Persian in the early 1980s but was first published in German in 2009. This novel narrates the story of a colonel of the Imperial Army of Iran after the 1979 revolution. Regarding this novel, which is not allowed to be published in Iran, Mr. Dowlatabadi mentioned that he has recently been informed from Mashhad that "The Colonel's Decline" has been printed in Afghanistan and is ready to be brought to Iran. He addressed Abbas Salehi, the Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs, saying, "I expect you to prevent this violation of my moral rights. This is now my moral reputation, not material. It is a conspiracy that wants to ruin me, but a mountain cannot be ruined." Mr. Dowlatabadi added that he is "not one to complain; he has embarked on the path of love and has come and will go." The spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance stated that the novel "The Colonel's Decline" has not yet received a publication permit due to "content flaws and deficiencies" and will not receive one until it is corrected. Hossein Nosh-Abadi said on Tuesday, November 20, that "The Colonel's Decline" has not received a publication permit due to the content flaws present in it, and no permit will be issued until it is corrected. In response to these statements, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi said, "It is not the job of the Ministry of Guidance to say that my book has structural flaws. Of course, this is not a structural flaw; it is a structural masterpiece. If it were not, a Western critic would not consider it the counterpart of Picasso's 'Guernica.'" According to the author of the novel "The Empty Place of Soluch," in the past three decades, three major countries have officially invited him to leave Iran and live there, but he rejected these invitations due to what he described as love for Iran. He stated, "There was once a war in this country. I went to the Ministry of Guidance to obtain a publication permit for my works. The person there threatened me. I told him not to think that with these threats, I would leave this country and sit in the cafes of Paris and insult you. We are two parallel lines that will never meet." The writer then referred to his previous statements that he wanted to go to the Ministry of Guidance one last time to talk to officials, saying, "The reason I said I wanted to speak with one of the officials was to tell them why they cannot and do not stop a fake book. They have forged my book and name. The name of the publisher is known. The enforcement officer at this publisher's workplace has seized the book, but why is this fake book being sold in the provinces under my name, and no one is stopping it? So what authority does the Ministry of Guidance have?" In response to Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's criticisms, Abbas Salehi said that the Ministry of Guidance is sensitive to books that do not have a publication permit at least within the country and quickly follows up on the publication and distribution of these works. The Deputy Minister of Guidance said, "Regarding the issue that Mr. Dowlatabadi raised, this kind of matter has been previously communicated to us through intermediaries, and the Ministry of Guidance acted quickly, and they know this, and their publisher was also informed. In another case where they said their book was being sold in a certain place in Shiraz, friends went and followed up. In the recent case where it was said that the book was printed in Afghanistan and has reached Mashhad, we will definitely follow up to prevent unauthorized works from being published in the Iranian publishing space." He did not provide an explanation regarding other criticisms from Mr. Dowlatabadi, especially concerning the refusal to grant a permit for the novel "The Colonel's Decline" by his department. In late February 2014, some Iranian media reported that "the publication of The Colonel's Decline has finally received a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance." However, on February 30, 2014, the Ministry of Guidance denied the publication of this book, stating that "no permit has been issued by the General Office of Books and the Development of Reading so far."