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IIDCYA CEO warns about rise in imported children’s literature

IIDCYA CEO warns about rise in imported children’s literature

TEHRAN – (Iranart)- The director of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) has warned about a sharp rise in imported children’s literature.

Speaking during a conference on children’s literature at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Monday, Fazel Nazari said, “The one-way process of importing and translating foreign literature in the country has definitely reached an alarming level.”

“Translation plays a key role in cultural exchanges, but it should not be a one-way street. The big movement toward foreign children’s literature will create numerous culture issues for our children in the future,” he added.

Nazari referred to a large amount of money that Iranian families spend every day to provide foreign animations and culture products for their children and said, “The most tragic part of the story is that the families pay the price of colonializing our children in the field of culture by purchasing foreign cultural products.”

He stressed the need to train a new young generation to fervently generate works in children’s literature and noted, “We should be much more sensitive to our local literature and national poetry.”   

“I don’t mean that the doors should be closed to the translation of foreign books into Persian, but I want the families to feel more concern about Iranian literature and culture,” he stated.

Based on a report published by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, 25 percent of the total number of the books published in Iran in the Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 21, 2018-March 20, 2019) had been translated from other languages into Persian. 

The report confirmed that 27 percent of the translated books are in the children’s field. 

source: Tehran Times

Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA)
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