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Heads of three government branches to attend 25th TIBF ceremonies
1391/01/31-08:30
A 25th edition of Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) will be kicked off in May with key ceremonies of the landmark cultural event slated to be attended by heads of the three branches of the Islamic Republic government, chief executive Bahman Dorri told a media session on Wednesday morning.
The media people were inspecting Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque, north of Tehran, the venue of the book fair where extensive measures were being carried out to prepare the fairground for the upcoming book event.
Following the inspection, a Q&A session was held in which the TIBF chief executive spoke of three official ceremonies during the fair to be led by heads of the three branches of the IRI government.
“An opening ceremony will be staged on May 1, 2012 in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” Dorri said, adding that a closing ceremony was slated for May 12 with Chairman of the Judiciary Sadeq Amoli Larijani expected to lead the event.
Bahman Dorri who is also deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance in cultural affairs also spoke of a special ceremony to mark the ministry’s post-revolutionary cultural activities. Titled “a quarter of century of cultural Jihad,” the ceremony will be held during the fair and will be led by Ali Larijani, speaker of the IRI Majlis (parliament).
The deputy minister then talked about several ministerial measures to counter with violations in the cultural event. He said any publishers with anti-Shii titles would be barred from the fair, adding that any titles that may contain obscene materials or images will be seized and their publishers will be banned from the cultural fair forever.
The TIBF chief executive added however that several publishers with violations in the past TIBF editions had pleaded for an authorization to rejoin the event. “They may be allowed to join provided no judicial ruling was in place against them,” he said.
In another regard, Dorri said foreign publishers who have joined the 25th edition of book fair would be compensated for all their claims before mid-September.
The deputy minister also talked about shopping vouchers to be granted to applicant university students, saying that at least for the time being, no more applications could be accepted as all vouchers were meted out. He said a line of budget worth 20 billion rls (about $1.6m) was earmarked for university students that were meted out early than expected and for the same reason the ministry had decided to earmark an additional line of budget worth 10 billion rls (about $0.8m) to cover more applicant students.
Asked about when to apply for the new series of vouchers, the deputy minister said a relevant website would be activated again in days to receive applications from the students.
The TIBF chief executive said vouchers worth 50 billion rls (about $4m) were earmarked for educational and training centers countrywide.
He also said vouchers worth 20 billion rls (about $1.6m) were earmarked for religious schools’ Alims nationwide.
