Here’s A Report on The 19th Tehran International Book Fair which opened yesterday and the public will be able to visit it until May 13. Last year, then President Mohammad Khatami inaugurated the event in a ceremony in which verses from Persian poet Hafez were cited several times. In this year’s fair, which the Iranian government is devoting to Islam’s prophet Muhammad, the atmosphere is quite different.
It is not as if freedom of expression was suddenly restricted under current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but rather that the progressive opening under his predecessor is now being reversed. Increasingly, the authorities are turning the screws and isolating the country.
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