Ministry of Culture's Reaction to Unauthorized Publication of 'Yalasarat': It Will No Longer Be Published

The spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has deemed the publication of the revoked magazine 'Yalasarat', the organ of Ansar Hezbollah, as 'illegal' and emphasized that this weekly will no longer be published. The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported on Friday, January 8, the statements of Hossein Noushabadi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, who stated, 'Rest assured, Yalasarat will not be published again.' He said, 'The publication license of the Yalasarat weekly has been revoked, and its publication is illegal. Therefore, on Wednesday, immediately after the publication of this weekly, the official ruling was communicated to them.' The Yalasarat weekly was suspended on January 4 due to the use of derogatory terms for Shahindokht Molaverdi, the Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, by the Press Supervisory Board. However, the staff of the Yalasarat weekly sent the next issue to newsstands on Wednesday. This magazine had referred to one of the women's rights activists with the term 'whore' and introduced Ms. Molaverdi as her 'partner.' Following Ms. Molaverdi's objection to this content, they republished it and suggested that if she was upset with the magazine's approach, she should go to London. Consequently, the Press Supervisory Board issued a ruling to suspend and revoke the license of this magazine, but Abdolhamid Mohtasham, the editor-in-chief of Yalasarat, announced that he had not yet received any ruling and published the next issue based on this argument. The spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance also referred to the issue of communicating the ruling, stating, 'The claims of the Yalasarat staff were not acceptable to us; because on Tuesday, after the ruling was issued, all media addressed this issue, and it was not the case that anyone was unaware of this ruling. As I announced in my press conference on Tuesday, this weekly has had its license revoked.' Mr. Noushabadi finally said, 'The staff of this magazine, since they were on the verge of distribution and claimed that the official ruling had not been communicated to them, distributed the magazine, but given that they were warned and the official ruling was communicated, rest assured that this magazine will no longer be published.'