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A large number of writers have been involved in producing literature for children since the revolution, as can be seen from references and bibliographies such as Iranian Book and More than 100 Persian Children’s Books. This makes the task of selecting examples to illustrate this thesis very difficult. Hossein Haddad’s Golchehr is dedicated to three post-revolutionary writers: Faridun Amuzadeh-Khalili, Mostafa Rahmandust, and Reza Rahgozar, and the following section will follow its example. The background and careers of these writers and how they entered the field will be presented, along with descriptions of their work and style. The section will show how their work reflects their philosophy and viewpoint on the ability of children to understand serious matters, as well as to escape into the fantasy world of their imagination.

The first writer to be featured, Faridun Amuzadeh-Khalili, was born in a district of the town of Semnan in 1349/1960 and received primary and secondary education in his hometown. He passed his university entrance exams in the year that he graduated and was accepted by the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Tehran. In 1987, he graduated and became a technician. He had already embarked on his writing career, having published his first work in 1984. Since then he has also written under the pseudonym of Mas’ud Abd al-Rahman.

Haddad claims that amongst the many authors of contemporary literature after the revolution, Amuzadeh is one of the most methodical and technical, saying, ‘This is a point which has been agreed upon by almost all of the other literary figures in their writings and interviews. His prose is endowed with a great many characteristics. It is at once beautiful, full of sincerity and yet strong and formed according to the rules of storytelling. He has a precise knowledge of various aspects of writing and has the ability to use those aspects in their proper places. His depiction of events and images are clean and he is keen and delicate in his subject matter.’

Amuzadeh has occupied various official positions at different educational and publishing organizations. The magazine "Soroush" for young adults was the first publication of its kind after the revolution and so far fifty issues have been printed. Amuzadeh was one of three members of the editing board. The magazine has also organized many literary gatherings in Tehran and other cities and has published special editions of artistic and literary issues. Amuzadeh comments:

‘If this continues one could hope that many new talents will be discovered in different parts of the country. This objective involves a great deal of hard work, planning, projection into the future, pinpointing specific goals, studying and analyzing what has been done so far, and a thorough in-depth study of what is required.’

 

In 2002, Amuzadeh became editor of a youth paper called Docharkheh (Bicycle), and he has established another weekly magazine for young people, Chelcheraq (Forty Lights). Another publication which he edited, Aftabgardan was banned (See Chapter 3 for discussion of this). He has also been involved in radio broadcasting and has been editor of programs for young adults. His works, comprising of books and stories, have been recognized by being chosen as best works in successive years. He received the Association of Writers for Children and Youth Award, the Gold Moon Medal, as the best writer in the last twenty years, and his 1994 story Journey to the City of Solomon received the Book of the Year Award of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Soroush-e Nojavan Magazine Award.

This story, for the 9 years and above age group, is about a little girl who hopes to build a better world with safer working conditions. She works as a carpet weaver and creates a carpet with a beautiful design of birds, dreaming that when she finishes it she will fly away to the city of Solomon, free as the birds. Sadly, the pressure of work prevents her from realizing her dream and she becomes gradually weaker, day by day, until she dies.

The writer portrays realistically the harsh conditions of the carpet workshops where young girls, who are made to work like slaves, lose their sight and their physical ability. We read in one part of the story: ‘Her legs have a burning sensation from the hard work of weaving.’ The story deals with exploitation and oppression, but at the end, the birds and other creatures on the green grass of the carpet draw the reader into fantasy. Amuzadeh incorporates the famous story of Hazrat Solomon, the hoopooe and the flying carpet into this fantasy world, which gives the story strength.

Amuzadeh’s story The Two Unripe Dates, for readers of 15 years or over, also deals with the realistic topics of poverty and child-trade, while introducing topics such as love, innocence and the purity of life of children. Imagination also plays a part in this story, which takes place in Sistan, Baluchistan. This desert area offers few opportunities for people and some are forced to support themselves by selling their young children to proprietors who use them as laborers. A Baluch boy is taken to the market by his father to be sold. He understands his father’s reasons and does not complain, saying:

‘The proprietors came. There were three of them, two were young and one was old. They were very attractive. The old man had glasses and a silver cane and it seemed as if his watch chain was gold …All at once I wanted them to buy me. Their appearance told us that they had several homes and cars. If a person went with them in their car, at the very least, one could take a free ride.’

 

Although several customers come to look at him, no-one buys him because of his rotten teeth. His attention is taken by a little girl, sitting with her father, also waiting to be sold. In his imagination, he falls in love with her, gives her his mother’s name, and carries her away on horseback to safety, in the heroic style of a Baluchi love story. At lunchtime, the little girl gives the boy two unripe dates to eat, then later she is sold. At the end of the day, the boy has not been sold and they return home. His father decides that he will have to lower his asking price, and we leave the boy to an uncertain future, knowing that the ordeal will continue until a buyer finally agrees on a price. The love which the boy feels for the girl is a point of light in the story. The blend of reality and fantasy also mirrors the child’s consciousness and is a device found in other children’s stories.

Beyond the Spruce Trees , a story from the book The God of Rainy Days by Amuzadeh, tells of an Eskimo girl, Toom, who hears her parents talking at night about her grandfather. She runs to tell him that she has heard her father speaking of a journey the following day, and from this he understands that he is to be dispatched to the ‘death cottage.’ His people believe that old persons attract Satan’s spirit, so they must go to the death cottage at a distance from the village, and stay there alone until they die. Toom rebels against this tradition and goes to her grandfather in the cottage. Her presence makes the prospect of death easier. She stays and hunts for him, but gets caught one day in a snowstorm. In the evening, when she has still not returned, her grandfather goes out to search for her, and finds her unconscious in the snow. In order to keep her alive with his body heat he lays down and embraces her. He is drowsy and falls into a dreamy sleep:

‘He could hardly open his eyes. The cutting breeze which slapped at his face, looked like the wings of golden birds that were carrying him into the peaceful blue lake of his childhood song. Then he saw himself in a sledge. He turned his head with unbelieving eyes and saw his granddaughter sleeping beside him in the sledge. Then, at a farther distance, he recognized the ice hills and ice cottages of their village and the faint orange lights that gleamed from the cottages.’

 

Thus, the story ends ambiguously and with a note of hope. Either the old man’s passing away has been helped by the presence of his granddaughter, or he has been taken back into the bosom of his village, overturning social norms. Ali Asghar Seyd Abadi considers that the final message of the story must be taken as the critical and anti-traditional attitude of the young girl against a tyrannical death which is imposed on old people, and that this feature renders the story different compared to other Iranian stories.

Kashijavad notes that the dominant trend in stories for children and youth is a conservative and non-critical approach to tradition, with society dictating moral rules and commandments that the child must obey in order to be accepted as a member, according to the usual social conventions. Such a brutal ancient tradition could have been broken by a prominent Eskimo leader, but Amuzadeh, chooses a young girl as the agent of change. Abadi points out that, as a girl ‘she experiences the tribal limitations more than what the boys do, and it is natural for the kid to evade and defy the tribal custom.’

By setting the story in a far-away society, the subject matter is rendered more theoretical, and enters the ageless and timeless space where all meaningful tales live forever.

Mostafa Rahmandust; poet, writer and translator of children and young adults’ stories is one of the diligent writers who has taken a prominent position in contemporary children’s literature in Iran. He has been working continually for children for the last twenty years, both officially and non-officially. Haddad asserts that ‘most of his works are connected with poetry, thus he has single-handedly composed half of the published poetry available today for children.’

Rahmandust was born in 1329/1950 in Hamadan. His father was a shopkeeper. In his youth, apart from studying, he spent his time selling fruits and savory snacks. Later he served an apprenticeship in a coffee house and worked in other shops and also did building work and electrical wiring. He first started writing in school and distinguished himself by writing fine prose. In his last three years at school he joined various literary and artistic societies. He became further acquainted with the work of Hafez, having read and reread the beautiful ghazals. He also became more aware of another poet, Maulana, whose poetry his mother used to sing while doing chores in the house. He also read classical prose and short stories. He started writing by keeping a diary which provided an accurate description of his youth for seven years.

He finished school at the age of twenty and left his home town for Tehran where he started his BA in the Faculty of Literature of Tehran University. Three years later he obtained his degree in Iranian Literature and became a civil servant working for the Library of the Parliament. Throughout his education, he never stopped writing and composing. He was encouraged by Dr. Shariati and Dr. Beheshti who later became the leaders of the Islamic Revolution. Various other people influenced him, such as Ali Akbar Hossaini and his teacher, Mr. Madadi.

Rahmandust has worked for various institutions as well as teaching at a number of universities, and has published many books of stories and poems. His books have received prizes and have been chosen as best sellers of the Islamic Republic. He has also translated poetry of foreign poets, as he is familiar with English, Arabic and Turkish, and has written film scripts for national television. He has been interviewed numerous times, and his works have been the subject of literary critique by authors of fiction and critical essays. He has been very active in the field of children’s literature; as editor-in-chief of Roshd-e Danesh Amuz and Soroush-e Kudakan magazines; as a member of the board and vice-chairman of the Association of Writers for Children and Youth, and as Director of the Children’s Department of Television. He was nominated as the Best Writer of Human Nature and Pacifism by the UNESCO National Commission and Association of Writers for Children and Youth.

Rahmandust’s story The Branches in the Wind, the Roots in the Soil for age 9 plus, won the Soroushe Nojavan Magazine Award. It is a story of two seeds who sprout and grow into trees beside each other near the city. They are happy together until the city developers and house builders expand into their area. A wall is built between the two trees and they are separated. They are very sad and decide that, as they cannot destroy the wall, they will grow so high that they will meet over the top of it. Their roots become entwined and then their branches, until finally they are together again just like in the past.

The two themes of environmental pollution and friendship are presented in this story. A landscape of cement and plaster and brick and smoke is spreading like a cancer from the city. Rahmandust compares this with the natural elements of sun, wind, storm and rain which fight back, showing the power of nature and its beauty. He uses the symbol of a wall as the reason for the separation and break in the relationship between the two trees. The theme of friendship and togetherness shown by the pair can be a metaphor for two humans who have been friends from childhood through adolescence, in a relationship that has faced difficulties but finally emerged stronger than ever, showing true unity in friendship.

Another example of Rahmandust’s work for readers of nine years and over is The Stories of the Mouse and the Cat, a collection of two fables: The Mouse and the Cat and The Lumberjack and the Lion, a rewriting of the famous literary work The Mouse and the Cat by Sheikh Bahai. The following review of this work appears in More than 100 Persian Children’s Books:

‘The battle between the cat and the mouse begins with words and expressions in theory, philosophy and knowledge fields. This dispute continues so that each one tries to make the other accept his reason. At last this battle means nothing but death for the weaker one. The two personalities in the story are a symbol of the character within the individual and sarcasm from the point of intelligence within the individual. In this rewrite the use of sarcasm and expressions help to answer the necessities of the children. The writer is skillfully successful in combining two methods of summarization and rewriting. Also he, at the same time, preserves the sarcastic words and remarks of Sheikh Bahai…Rahmandust adapts and rewrites the literary work of Sheikh Bahai who is a famous scientist during the reign of Shah Abbas of the Safavi dynasty.’

 

Haddad lists 53 works by Rahmandust in Golchehr, showing the great number of books produced by this author. The latest of his publications mentioned by Haddad were in 1991.

4.1.2.3 Reza Rahgozar

 

Mohammad Reza Sarshar has written for children and young adults under the assumed names of Reza Rahgozar and Mohammad Didar. He is one of a small number of committed and hardworking authors who have displayed their talents in a large oeuvre of literary endeavors from stories to educational essays and critiques. In the field of young adults’ stories, he has a keen and serious outlook, and concerning the critical appraisal of children’s stories and adult novels, he has a deep and distinguished viewpoint. He manifests his many talents in hard work and presentation of worthy works for children and young adults as well as discourse on theories in the field. He is one of the Islamic Revolution generation of authors and has considerable views on stories for children.

Rahgozar was born in 1332/1953 in Kazeroun, in the province of Fars. He spent his formative years in his hometown; thereafter he traveled with his father to many towns and studied in Shiraz, Tabriz, Boushehr, Oroumieh, Esfahan and Jahrom, graduating in 1351/1972. He had no chance to form lasting friendships with children of his own age as he never stayed in one place long enough, except for Shiraz. As a result of this, his best friend was his younger brother to whom he felt a great attachment. In his own words: ‘We played games with the very few toys which we had made ourselves since our financial situation made our lives very limited. We played with old car tires which we rolled along and ran after and sometimes held competitions with other children. Or we used the old tires of bicycles with wire attached and ran after them. We got such enjoyment from playing games with basically nothing.’

Rahgozar started reading children’s magazines which his teacher gave him. He was encouraged and influenced by his relatives and his friends. Also his father, who was a learned man, was a strong influence on him. He actually recalls him reading short stories aloud to his young children. He also read his father’s books and later he used to rent books from a bookshop. As the rental was not cheap Rahgozar used to finish the books in one night so as not to have to pay for another day’s rental. Later when he had enough money to buy a second hand book he would read it and then sell it again. During this time, his family formed an acquaintance with another family who had a bookcase full of books. To him this was a veritable treasure. His greatest wish was to have a room stacked with books, with just enough space left for a bed. He wished he could be left alone to read. In his adolescence, Rahgozar attended the sermons given by a young mullah in the local mosque. He was thirsty for a solid and strong philosophy for life. He used the books in the mosque and listened avidly to the lectures given in the mosque. He was greatly influenced by religious books.

When he reached the age of 18 he joined the army and served in Jahrom, Gorgan and Mianduab as a member of the Education Corps.

Rahgozar published his first work in a weekly magazine, Ferdowsi, over a period of two years. He returned to Shiraz after finishing his military service and took a job in a school in an administrative capacity. He became more determined to pursue his writing career. He had published a short story Dastan-e Barfi (Tales of Snowy) which manifested his gift as a writer. He was then accepted to study in the University of Science and Technology in the field of scientific engineering. Thus, he left the provinces to study in Tehran, where he has lived ever since. This departure hailed a new beginning in his potential capacity for literary work.

While he was a student, he taught in various schools and published three books. Following the victory of the revolution, he became the editor of the magazine The Pupil. Later he ventured into radio broadcasting as a children’s program editor, acquainting millions of children with his warm voice over the next nine years. In 1985, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He resigned from his post and joined the Artistic Circle as head of story-telling programs. Rahgozar also pioneered a story-telling course by correspondence. Since then, he has organized story-writing classes which have produced many distinguished authors. He also formed the Daftar Honar va Adab (Cahier of Arts and Literature) for children and young adults. He is the editor of the magazine Domain of Children’s Literature. He became the head of the literature division of the Artistic Circle and was chosen to become one of the senior inspectors of children’s books in the Ministry of Culture and Guidance. He is still serving in that capacity. Rahgozar has been editor-in-chief of Ghalamro (numbers 1-5), of the monthly magazine Sureh-ye Nojavan, which he started, and member and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Pen Association on Iran, and Secretary of the Literature and Art Desk of Keyhan newspaper. He wrote a number of books for children in the period just after the Revolution.

His book The Prize, for readers aged 12 years and above, received the Children’s Book Council Award and the Book of the Year Award of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1983. The Prize contains three short stories which deal with the themes of poverty and friendship. In the first story, The Gold Watch, the friendship of Sadegh and Saeed is destroyed by an accusation of theft. Sadegh is poor and Saeed is rich. One day Sadegh visits Saeed’s house and while they are playing by the pool, Saeed takes his watch off and puts it by the side of the pool. The next day he cannot find it and accuses Sadegh of taking it. Finally, he finds his watch on the ground in a crow’s nest, but the damage has already been done. The result of Saeed’s labelling his friend as a thief is the destruction of their friendship. This story of accusation and libel also shows the differences between the rich and the poor.

The second story, The Prize, shows the embarrassment of a father who is unable to keep a promise to his son, and his son’s understanding and mature acceptance of the situation. The promise of the father is that if his son gets the top grade in his final exam he will buy him a bicycle. The boy works hard and becomes the best student, but it seems that his father has forgotten his promise. One day the boy overhears a conversation between his mother and his father, who is a government employee with a very small salary, and understands that his father cannot keep his promise. At first he is upset, but then he wants his father to know that he understands the situation and does not care about the bicycle. He writes a letter and puts it in his father’s pocket. The story shows comprehension of the behavior and conditions of others and reciprocal understanding within families, where children are able to empathize with the problems of their parents.

The third story, Friend, is about a boy called Yunus, whose family moves from Shiraz to a city in Azerbaijan. He does not speak Turkish and the language barrier prevents him from forming relationships with the other children at school, leaving him feeling like a stranger. Finally, he makes friends with a Persian speaking boy called Mehdi, but this ends badly when Mehdi encourages him to join him in running away from school. After ten days on the run, the schoolchildren find them. Mehdi runs away from them, but Yunus is carried back to school, where the teacher kindly explains to him that he has made a mistake. The teacher’s kind words and behavior embarrass Yunus, and finally understanding that his classmates are fond of him, he decides to find Mehdi and bring him back to school. Rahgozar, in this story, shows the importance of unity and national harmony, and that the existence of different nationalities in one country should not be a reason for separation, exclusion, or feelings of insecurity.

I Exist if I Run (15 years & up) received the Children’s Book Council Award in 1982. The story is about five friends who attend vocational school together. They decide that they want to continue their education in the field of architecture. However, the school’s vice-principal is opposed to this, on the grounds that a minimum of fifteen students are necessary for a field of study to be offered. The vice-principal is a tyrant who runs the shool like an army camp, and drives the students to oppose him by boycotting classes. The boys seek help from a higher authority but are unsuccessful in attaining support for their cause. Finally they decide that they will move to another city in order to achieve their aim. However, the vice-principal dissuades four of the boys and only one of them moves away in order to study in his desired field. In this story, Rahgozar focuses on the system of education in the first years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran and highlights its deficiencies in socio-political terms. In more general terms, the story’s message is that one must resist tyrants and defend one’s rights. The atmosphere of fear and powerlessness felt by the students is shown to arise from a power-possessed individual in a position to impose his will on the lives of others. Although a resolution of sorts is reached at the end of the story, the reader is reminded that in a system where one cannot obtain one’s rights, the only alternative is migration to another city or country.

The Small Migrant , for readers of 12 years and above, received the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults Award, and the Soroush-e Nojavan Award in 1987. This story, set in the first years of the Iran-Iraq war, is about Abbas, a young boy from Khuzestan. After losing members of his family he goes to Tehran to search for his brother. He goes from one hospital to another, experiencing many adventures, and finally meets up with a kind family who want to help him. The story’s point of view shifts from narration by Abbas to that of the author as one of the characters, and uses the traditional technique of nesting one story inside another. The author wants to write a biography of Abbas’ life contrasting the happy times before the war with the bombing and air attacks, destruction, death and homelessness of himself and others. The story highlights the confusion of the little boy and portrays war in a sympathetic tone.

Waiting to See You , for nine years and up, a selected book of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 1983, is described in More than 100 Persian Children’s Books as follows:

‘This story is one of self-sacrifice and love for the Prophet of Islam. Abu Dhzar Ghaffari is one of the followers of the Prophet. In many of the Islamic narrations he is known as the one who sacrifices his life for Islam. This story is written once again in the context of Islamic history. The author describes the preparation of war with the Romans, being stranded in the desert, the difficulties of the Islamic army and Abu Dhzar’s situation very well.’

 

Thus, it can be seen that Rahgozar’s stories deal with realistic, moral and social issues as well as religious themes. He does not favor imaginative fantasy in an escapist or mystical mode, but is strongly affected by real life problems, and his stories reflect these themes. He pays tribute to the heritage of traditional and historic stories, and comments on the legacy and worldwide influence of Iranian literature:

‘Throughout history this civilization which is one of many civilizations, has created poems, narratives, fairy tales, stories and plays. Children and young adults have a considerable share of this history. Their literature to some extent has had an effect on the present day literature, making it one of the richest and most attractive parts. The literature that has been rewritten, reproduced, recreated and revealed came from the precious treasure of heritage of literature. We have been witness to the fact that such works as 1001 Nights and the works of Hayyebn Yaghzan have been used by western writers and animators producing a series of highly effective, attractive and valuable works of their own for the children and young adults in their own countries.’

 

Despite being grounded in reality, Rahgozar gives the optimistic message that difficulties can be overcome, even if the world is not perfect. Rahmandust also deals with realistic topics, but brings in more abstract imagery and metaphor, while Amuzadeh, makes full and effective use of both, blending mystical elements with the harsh realities of life Although his stories are not always optimistic and do not have traditionally happy endings, they offer hope which transcends earthly suffering.

Thus, it can be seen that these writers, in their own different ways, have produced serious work, thoughtful and sensitive to the imaginative capacity of children, and a reflection of the world in which they live.

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