IRAN: Every book tells a tale

The books are for sale in a crumbling three-story building doomed to be demolished to make way for a new western wing of Tehran University. A man in his mid-30s asks a salesman about selling his used English-language books in bulk. He built up the collection painstakingly over the years, evading censors and sanctions. But they’re now a burden for him as he plans his immigration to North America, Australia or Europe.

The official figures say that up to 180,000 educated Iranians leavethe country every year in search of a better life abroad. The desire to leave the country is evident, simply take a look at the lines outside the Canadian or French embassies in Tehran, or at the growing number of lucrative private language schools. Or visit the used book stores.

I have mixed feelings when I buy such books. I'm happy to own some books by Edgar Allan Poe and William James but I feel sad for the man selling his beloved books. He seems like a father giving away his motherless children to be adopted by a rich family.

I once bought a book at a flea market. It bore a hand-written dedication from its author to Abbas Milani, the well-regarded scholar who now heads Iranian Studies at Stanford University.

I emailed Prof. Milani. "I want to know how your private library ended up in secondhand bookstores,” I wrote. “Did you sell them to middlemen or were they seized by security forces before you left the country?"

Prof. Milani graciously answered me. "I did not sell my books but left them all to my friends," he wrote. "But losing my books was indeed a small price compared to losing my country and my right to live in my home and not as an émigré."

He added, "Happy reading."

— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: First thing to go for an educated young Iranian planning to move abroad are the English-language books. Credit: Ramin Mostaghim

Comments

[winston]

Well, compared to losing your right to live in a place, losing books ain't matter much.

[17th of november]

Abbas Milani is just another mko traitor. Iran is a developing nation under sanctions that suffers from a brain drain caused by a combination of poor economic choices and real external pressure on the economy. Thus like many other states we produce economic emigrants who seek to parley their free public university education into a high paying job abroad. Is that a sin? It's just how the world is, if you're a great futbolist you go to the euroleagues; just reality in a globalized workforce.

Asa far as crying over old kahrije books, get a laptop, surf the net, you can find all the literature of this world at your fingertips; i'm reading vietnamese poetry these days. Life to the republic, death take her enemies, may the sepah be the instrument of god and country.

[Nima]

Dear Ali Rahmani, You are either joking or must be a complete idiot to not see that nobody wants your dumb revolution. Take a look at the Mullah's hypocrisies and disastrous polices; wake up. Nobody wants a client-state. But is it too much for a 2500 year old nation to have true democracy and rule by the people rather than a psychotic leadership that is more interested in serving the interests of a few, the Hizbollahis.

[Ali Rahmani]

Abbas Milani is a sellout who consults Neo-Con warmongers. He talks about losing his country? He is trying to make Iranians lose their country, their revolution, their independence, by helping US return back to Iran and return Iran back to status of client-state. NEVER AGAIN!

Maybe Milani should see this mural up in Iran and be reminded that the Basij will NEVER ever .. . .

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/91/238530301_50d2294aca.jpg?v=0

[Morteza Bagheri]

Dear Mr Mostaghim,

I enjoyed your article, as always. They give me a nostalgic sense of the past days.

As for the story of books and immigration, i should say that having in mind the 180,000 young Iranians- or let's say the virtual capitals - who leave their homeland for a better life abroad, we should also consider a recent process which I call Reverse Immigration; of course not from abroad to Iran.

In Iran itself, in the past decades, there's been a trend of internal immigration of young people in different cities to Tehran to have a better social life, to find a job and, in a way, to catch their share of oil money in Tehran. Some immigrated without any plan to work just as laborers and some remained in Tehran after their military service or university studies ended in the capital.

However, recently, we see a trend of reverse immigration of such people to their hometowns, as they call it quits due to the backbreaking Tehran expenses of housing and everyday life and nostalgias of the hometowns. These are also gifted people who have to go back to their hometowns and waste their talent and capabilities in places, where there are no proper job opportunities or hopes to grow.