According to the reports, security guards have prevented the 50th anniversary Celebration of the Iranian Writers’ Association (Kanoon Nevisandegane Iran) on Friday May 25th, 2018.
On Friday, May 25th, 2018, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Iranian Writers’ Association was prevented by the security forces. Reza Khandan Mahabadi, a writer and member of the Board of Directors of the Iranian Writers’ Association, said in a statement to Radio Farhang, “before the fifty years anniversary celebration starts, the police invaded the venue of the festival and prevented the meeting from being held, while at the same time, the association location was searched and some of the association items were seized”.
Akbar Masoum Beigi, a member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, wrote on his pages in Virtual Networks that security guards “brutally attacked” the house where they had plan to hold the event and blocked the street leading to the house.
According to the report, the security guards took all the posters, memorabilia, and items that were created by the members of last year for this year ceremony.
Hassan Mortazavi, another member of the Writers’ Association, also wrote on his Facebook page that “they’re even afraid of a simple ceremony in a private house”.
On Friday, December 1st, 2017, security officers also prevented the Iranian Writers’ Association ceremony of to commemorate Ali Ashraf Darvishian, a story writer and researcher in the field of public literature.
In addition to the Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Agency, the Intelligence Ministry of the Hassan Rouhani Government, in the past few years, has also prevented a meeting of some political and cultural groups criticizing the Iranian government, including the National Front and the Iranian Writers’ Association.
The Iranian Writers’ Association was created in April of 1968, with the purpose of combating censorship. The members of the association were faced with oppression, execution, and murder at different times of Iranian history, both during Pahlavi times and during the Islamic Republic, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
Mohammad Jafar Pooyandeh and Mohammad Mokhtari, who died during Chain Murders of Iran by Iranian government internal operatives in the ’90s, were members of this association. The members of association are writers, translators, and editors. Famous members of the Association include Simin Daneshvar, Nader Ebrahimi, Bahram Beyzaee, Dariush Ashuri, Mohammad Ali Sepanlou, Mahmoud Etemadzadeh (M.A. Beh AZIN), Siavash Kasraei, Ismail Khoyi, and Ahmad Shamloo.