Iranian dissident Ebrahim Yazdi has published another book on the internet, calling it a protest against the Iranian Ministry of Culture’s failure to provide valid reasons for not approving its publication.
The book, titled The Student Movement in the 1940s and 1950s, was published 10 days after Yazdi uploaded his book about Mehdi Bazargan, who was the head of Iran’s interim state after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Bazargan was the head of the Freedom Movement Party of Iran, a position that Yazdi took over after Bazargan’s death.
In a letter to the Minister of Culture and Guidance, Yazdi writes: “The president has said in his interviews that Iran is the freest country in the world, so it is not clear why a book about the late Mr. Bazargan cannot get a publication licence.”
In the letter, Yazdi indicates that this is the last time he will request a licence to publish his books, and that if the ministry refuses to respond, he will publish his books online.
Yazdi was arrested twice during the post-election protests of 2009 and was finally released last March. The octogenarian was the oldest political prisoner in Islamic Republic prisons.
