IRAN: Every book tells a tale

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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