Taliban Banned Afghan Publishers from Attending The 35th Tehran International Book Fair
This year, no publisher from Afghanistan is present at the Tehran Book Fair, and only Afghanistani publishers living in Iran are active
According to Mohajir Times, Today is May 11, 2024, and it is the fourth day of the Tehran Book Fair, where most of Afghanistan's domestic publishers are still empty. The 35th edition of the Tehran International Book Fair with the slogan Let's “Read and Build” is being held from May 8 to May 18, 2024, simultaneously in-person and virtually at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla in Tehran, with participation from various countries around the world. However, this year, the Taliban has banned domestic publishers from Afghanistan from participating in the Tehran International Book Fair, and only Afghanistani immigrant publishers residing in Iran are present at the fair.
Meanwhile, Farhikhtegan Daily has written that every year, Afghanistani publishers were enthusiastically present at the Tehran Book Fair. Still, after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan came to power, the presence of these publishers has been associated with ifs and buts. Last year, the books that were supposed to go to the book fair by Afghanistani publishers were accompanied by many scrutiny audits by the Taliban and some publishers were not allowed to attend.
This year, no publisher from Afghanistan is present at the Tehran Book Fair, and only Afghanistani publishers living in Iran are active. In this year's book fair, there are works from 55 foreign publishers, and the countries of Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Russia and Mexico participated in the international section. Yemen is also a special guest of this course.
The human rights organization known as Rawadari also wrote in its new report that the Taliban has banned the purchase and sale of books printed by Iran in Afghanistan. In the report of this organization, it is stated that the Taliban has banned the purchase and sale of books related to Shias works about different ethnic groups such as Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks in Afghanistan.
The same media outlet called “Chalawsaf”, which operates in the field of fact-checking news related to Afghanistan denies this report. Nevertheless, Chalawsaf writes that the Rawadari Organization quoted a book vendor in Kabul and wrote that the Taliban provided a list of 100 book titles to publishers and book venders to prevent their sale and purchase. Still, no specific book was mentioned in this report.
