Salehi Amiri: Culture a Field of Beliefs

Mohammad Sarir, chairman of Artists Supreme Council, delivered the first speech, saying that changes in administrative field would usually delay action, irantheater.ir reported.

If the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance tries to fulfill promises made by the government when President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, that would mean the field would be moving a step forward, the artist explained.

Three years have been passed since a realistic and prudent person has taken the helm as the country’s the most senior cultural policymaker, Mr Sarir said, adding that it should be admitted that sometimes the road is bumpy to do the plans while expectations and demands of artists have also been diverse and different.

Also, Fereshteh Taerpour, a cinema producer, had prepared a note to pay a tribute to Mr Janati and congratulates Mr Salehi Amiri. “Dr Ali Janati, you would surely remember the day you took office as minister without having any record of dialogue with Iran cinema society or the Iran cinema having any record of you…But remember that the Iran cinema will not forget your positive measures. Opening closed doors and increasing the seats in movie theaters and … are among measures that the cinema community must be thankful for them of you.”

Mr Janati, the outgoing minister, hoped that what the lecturers recorded as his positive measures would be put in his records as culture minister.

“I tried to respect you and your dignity as the members of art society and will move in line with the world cultural developments while preserving the national and religious culture, improving the public culture and rehabilitating the guild unions were among measures the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry had tried to do over the past three years,” the former official said.  

“Unfortunately, some covert rooms launched when the incumbent government took office to sabotage it. These rooms changed into operation rooms later!,” he complained, referring to sabotages in the field such as book, music and theater to disrupt cultural openness.

These rooms plotted against dramatic arts too, Mr Janati claimed and added that Tehran was hosting 100 to 110 theater pieces each night. “Sometimes, artists mad some off-the-cuff dialogues during the performance or recite a poem out of the play. These groups attended different plays and waited for incidents such as a loose hijab of a woman to take photos or videos to claim that the cultural situation in the country had gone vulgar.”   

Mr Salehi Amiri, the incoming minister, said that he would chase a policy of dialogue and mutual understanding during his tenure and explained that the culture was a field of beliefs rather than musts and must-nots.

He promised to stay away of taking hasty decisions and would respect different tastes while allaying the supreme leader’s concerns in the cultural field and dominate religious values in his cultural programs.