The 1979 Revolution in Iran was meant to bring freedom, hope, and prosperity to an oppressed people, but the reality is well known—the poets and writers interviewed by Shiva Rahbaran speak instead of humiliation, despotism, war, and poverty.
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As poet Mohammad Hoghooghi says, "[Writing] constitutes resistance. Because, in any age, the poet has been a protestor of a kind; resisting the thought-molds of the day. However, this protest might be political, it might be social, or it might even be philosophical. At any rate, the artist is at odds with the prevalent conduct and thinking of his age; this has always been the case." The 1979 Revolution in Iran was meant to bring freedom, hope, and prosperity to an oppressed people, but the reality is well known—the poets and writers interviewed by Shiva Rahbaran speak instead of humiliation, despotism, war, and poverty. These interviews with poets and writers still living and working in Iran demonstrate their belief that literature's value is in opening spaces of awareness in the minds of the reader—and pockets of freedom in society.