“About 30 million children live in Iran while only 15 million books are published annually, i.e., every two Iranian children have only one new book,” Mostafa Rahmandust told the Persian service of the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) Sunday.
“Cultural officials have not carried out their duties properly in the field of children’s literature.… No progress has been shown in this field over the past few years,” he added.
Rahmandust, who is the director of the children’s section of the Iran National Library and Archives, said book reading should be encouraged by families and should then be reinforced by state organizations such as the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults.
“Book reading is not approached professionally in Iran. Neither is a writer able to earn a living as a writer, nor is a publisher hopeful about the outcomes of his or her work. Also, families are not enthusiastic about the books that are being published,” he lamented.
Various figures have been published about Iran’s book reading rate. In April 2008, then director of the Iran National Library and Archives Ali-Akbar Ashari said the average Iranian spent only two minutes in every 24 hours reading a book.
Ashari was censured for his remarks by some Iranian officials who began to give higher statistics for book reading.
The general director of the public libraries of Gilan province announced Saturday that Iran’s book reading averages 74 minutes every 24 hours.
With an 84-minute per capita book reading rate, Gilan is “the most cultured province of Iran,” Mohammad Ahmadipur told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency.
Ahmadipur gave no source for his statistics.