The stage director Nasser Hosseinimehr, the author of “Theater in Iran: From the Coup to the Revolution”, has also written the book, “Pioneers of Iranian Theater”.

Before the pandemic, Hosseinimehr planned to stage Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, however, the frequent theater management changes thwarted his plan after many rehearsals.

This situation followed by the pandemic led him to focus on writing, whose outcomes are “Pioneers of Iranian Theater” and “Theater in Iran: From the Coup to the Revolution”.

“For my part, I have tried to familiarize the present generation with the works carried out by our theatrical ancestors in the past,” Hosseinimehr told the Persian service of MNA.

“There is a distance between the new generation of our theater and the early forerunners of this field; ties between the generations have been severed,” he stated.

“The situation is very critical since the younger generation of our thespians do not have a great deal of knowledge about the history of Iranian theater, particularly about the history of the first three golden decades of theater after the [Anglo-American] coup in Iran in 1953,” he added.

Recalling the names of a number of Iranian theater pioneers, including Reza Kamal, Seyyed Mohammadreza Kordestani, Seyyed Ali Khan Nasr, Seifeddin Kermanshahi, Esmaeil Mehrtash and several of their successors such as Mahin Oskui, Rokneddin Khosravi, Jamileh Sheikhi, Mehdi Fat’hi and Parviz Fannizadeh, Hosseinimehr lamented that the younger generation is not familiar with any of them.

“I definitely do not expect the younger generation in Iranian theater to memorize the biographies of the people; the present generation is indifferent to the history and theater culture and to sum up, we have become alienated from ourselves; our cold stages are empty of the love of and mystery surrounding these people,” he noted.

This book explores the views of Iran’s theater pioneers, with whom Hosseinimehr held meetings recorded by his “timeworn but efficient” tape recorder.

Rarely discussed topics such as Seifeddin Kermanshahi’s doomed love for singer Qamarolmoluk Vaziri, setting fire to the Sadi Theater and the arrival of Iranian women to theatrical performances have been scrutinized in the book.

Photo: A poster for Nasser Hosseinimehr’s book “Pioneers of Iranian Theater”.

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Rah-e Yar is the publisher of the book “Mission of God” written by the Tehran-based Afghan author Mohammad-Sarvar Rajai based on some notes Saeidi left after his martyrdom in Behsud, Afghanistan.

The title of the book has been inspired by a phrase from Saeidi’s last will and testament as he called his mission to the war “a mission of God”.

Rajai and a number of literati attended a meeting organized on Sunday by the Iran Public Libraries Foundation to introduce the book.

“If we study the historical accounts of Iranian martyrs in Afghanistan during the Islamic jihad in conjunction with the accounts of Afghan martyrs during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, we will be able to grasp the delightful and heartwarming tales that originate from the wholehearted beliefs shared by the two countries,” Rajai said.

He noted that Saeidi detached himself from worldly attachments, leaving behind his family to join the mujahedin forces and to defend the people of Afghanistan.

Saeidi and his comrades were among the first units of soldiers to receive military training under the supervision of professional military training officers in Iran.

He traveled to Afghanistan following a meeting with the renowned Iranian commander, Mostafa Chamran, in order to support the Afghan people in their fight against the Soviets.

While in Afghanistan, Saeidi’s talents for military affairs led Afghan commanders to appoint him as a training officer for their forces.

The Afghans consider Saeidi as one of their national heroes and his grave in the country is frequently visited by the people every day.

Ehsan Parsi, Abolfazl Karbalai Puryzadi and Fazel Hosseini were among the numerous young Iranian volunteers that joined the Afghans in the war against the Soviets.

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The details of the visit will be published later.

Over the years, Tehran International Book Fair has turned into a landmark book fair in Middle East and Asia after holding 31 editions in a row. Every year in late April, an average of 3,000 domestic and 800 foreign publishers participate in the event. The foreign publishers substantially offer their materials in English or Arabic, while titles in French, German, Chinese, Korean or Japanese are also available.

30 countries are participating at the exhibition this year. China is this year’s Guest of Honor at TIBF, with a delegation of 150 representatives from its publishing industry.

The 32nd Tehran Book Fair will wrap up on May 4.

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In his brief speech, Rouhani said, “Thoughts can link the world of the past with the world of today,” and added, “Thoughts can be saved either in words or through books.”

“Books reflect the thoughts of a nation in a period of time throughout history. Today our nobles and the scholars carry a heavy burden to clarify what is good and necessary for the people through words and books,” he noted.

The award in the general art category was presented to “The Encyclopedia of Art” by Rueen Pakbaz.

“This Street Has No Rumble Strip” by Maryam Jahani and “Booklessness” by Mohammadreza Sharafi-Khabushan shared the award in the contemporary literature section.

“The National Art Group” by Ruhollah Jafari received the award for best book in the dramatic arts category. The book reviews dramatic arts in Iran from 1956 to 1978.

“Study of Art of Music” by Majid Kiani was named the best music book.

“Euripides: Five Plays” translated by Abdollah Kowsari into Persian also received an award. The plays are from the tragedian of classical Athens, Euripides.

In the children’s literature section, “Like Nobody” by Sepideh Khalili and “A Bear That Smokes” by Javad Rahnama shared the award.

The award in the translation category went to “The Thing about Jellyfish” written by American author Ali Benjamin. The book has been translated into Persian by Keivan Abidi.

Several books published overseas were also honored. “Transmission of Secret Knowledge” by Regula Forster, and “A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity” by Richard E. Payne are among the books.

Also included are “The Formation of the Islamic Understanding of Kalala in the Second Century AH” by Pavel Pavlovitch and “The Medieval Reception of the Shahnameh as a Mirror for Princes” by Nasrin Askari.

The organizers also honored books in dozens of categories, including history, religion, philosophy, social sciences, engineering and geography.

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Over 500 books, most of which were by children’s writers, were sold at the concert, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Wednesday.

The money raised at the performance has been earmarked for donation to needy children in Sabzevar.

Darvag-e Sabzevar is led by santur player Hamidreza Seyyednia.  Majid Naqibzadeh, Ehsan Naderian, Sadeq Amirkhani and Amin Bahman-Saffar are other members of the band.

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The book, which also contains a selection of his handwritings and a few rarely-seen photos of the poet, has been published by the Iz Publications in collaboration with the Shahriar Research Foundation.

Attended by a number of cultural scholars including veteran poet Seyyed Ali Musavi Garmarudi, the ceremony began with short speeches followed by a screening of “Companion”, a documentary by Hamed Khosroshahi on Shahriar.

Shahriar, who also composed works in Azerbaijani, was mainly influenced by the poetry of Hafez. He published his first book of poems in 1929, with prefaces by Persian literature scholars Mohammad-Taqi Bahar, Saeid Nafisi and Pejman Bakhtiari.

“Heidar Babaya Salam” is Shahriar’s most famous Azerbaijani poetry collection, which highlights his birthplace, the village of Heidar Baba.

Iranians commemorate Shahriar on the anniversary of his death, September 18, which is also Iran’s National Day of Poetry and Literature.

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The book “Birth of Iranian Modernism” has recently been released by Nazar Publications.

Visual Arts Office director Majid Mollanoruzi and Nazar Publications director Mahmudreza Bahmanpur also attended a ceremony organized at the Fereshteh branch of the Book City Institute in Tehran to unveil the book.

Pointing to the shortage of theories on Iranian art, Sami-Azar said that modern art in Iran has presented great achievements over the past five decades and added the continuity in the attainments requires the reinforcement of theoretical knowledge.

“I have personally heard that art in Iran has been famous in the world but lacks good theoretical knowledge, and that the number of books reviewing art in Iran has been just a few,” he told the participants.

“This was the source of inspiration for me to write different articles, which gave birth to this book,” said Sami-Azar who was the former director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

Bahman Mohasses, Hossein Kazemi, Masud Arabshahi and Abolasem Saeidi, are among the 15 artists introduced in the book.

Sami-Azar said that the book is not a history of art; rather, it directly reviews the artists and their works.

“I have some good reasons which indicate that the efforts for modernizing art in Iran have been fruitful and we can properly talk about the obvious modernism in the artworks,” he concluded.

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