Salehi Amiri: The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Must Be Managed Specially

Reza Salehi Amiri, the new Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, stated on Wednesday: "The primary issue of this ministry is that this area must be managed entirely professionally and intervention by elements outside this cultural apparatus must be prevented." In the television program "Tonight's Headline" on the news network, Salehi Amiri added: "At times, political actors bring their game to the cultural arena, which is not good, and cultural conflicts arise between different fields, turning from convergence to chaos." On Tuesday, Salehi Amiri received a vote of confidence from the Iranian parliament with 180 votes in favor, 89 against, and six abstentions. In another part of the interview, the new Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance emphasized: "Greater speed and vitality in the movement of the cultural train, which is the President's directive, is one of my working principles." Mr. Salehi Amiri identified creating stability and calm in this ministry as his first decision and stated: "My first priority is the mechanism of interaction with other cultural institutions." The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, stating that in Iran "we have a cultural system," added: "We must accept that there are religious authorities, Friday prayer leaders, mosque leaders, Basij, Astan Quds, municipalities, Azad University, public cultural institutions, and at a broader level, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, the Expediency Discernment Council, and at a more extensive level, the prevailing discourse in this collection, which is the discourse of the Supreme Leader in our country." Mr. Salehi Amiri has replaced Ali Jannati, who resigned from his position at the end of October this year. Ali Jannati faced opposition from several Friday prayer leaders in Razavi Khorasan province and other parts of Iran regarding the holding of music concerts towards the end of his ministry. Following the opposition from the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad and judicial authorities in Razavi Khorasan province against music concerts in Mashhad, Ali Jannati announced that music performances would not take place in these cities. However, this issue prompted a reaction from Hassan Rouhani, who stated: "Anyone who wakes up in the morning and finds a podium cannot legislate, and the minister should not comply because the minister must be subject to the law." In this context, three thousand music professionals had written a letter to the president asking him to defend the "dignity of the music community." Meanwhile, the Minister of Culture also wrote in his resignation letter: "Given the nature of culture and art and the profound differences of opinion among cultured personalities regarding cultural and artistic issues on one hand and the efforts of opponents and ill-wishers to stifle any positive cultural movement of this ministry from the beginning of its work until now, it has been more attacked than other executive agencies, and most of its activities have been destroyed in a space polluted by lies, slander, and unfounded accusations." Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, defended Reza Salehi Amiri in the parliament on Tuesday, stating: "Mr. Jannati resigned, and of course, a manager with a new spirit was needed."