Publishing and Awareness Are Not Crimes
37
Signatures
500
Goal
29 October 2025
We Condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran for the Suppression of Samandar Publishing and the Arrest of Cultural Activists
We, Iranian publishers in exile, express our profound anger and sorrow at the attack by security forces of the Islamic Republic on Samandar Publishing and the arrest and torture of five cultural activists — Hassan Tozandejani (poet and cultural activist), Ehsan Rostami (publisher and translator), Marjan Ardeshirzadeh (translator), Ramin Rostami, and Nima Mehdizadegan (publishing and book industry activists). These coordinated arrests, carried out on 20 August 2025, are yet another manifestation of the Islamic Republic’s hostility toward culture, books, and enlightenment.Although Marjan Ardeshirzadeh and Parnia Rostami were temporarily released on 27 October, the others remain in detention and under pressure to make forced confessions before the camera to the “crime” of publishing and thinking freely.According to credible sources, agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have also abducted Jahangir Rostami, the father of Ehsan Rostami, from his home in the city of Harsin on 17 October, transferring him to Evin Prison. Two days later, security agents reportedly brought him, bloodied and in critical condition, before his son’s eyes in order to extract coerced confessions through family hostage-taking. This conduct constitutes clear acts of torture, hostage-taking, and crimes against humanity.
Over the past four decades, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly demonstrated its fundamental enmity toward free culture, independent publishing, and public awareness. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, along with security agencies and the judiciary, have effectively become instruments for the suppression of thought. Any publisher, writer, or translator who steps beyond the narrow confines of state censorship and propaganda is either imprisoned or forced into silence. A regime that fears knowledge has already lost its cultural legitimacy.
We, the undersigned Iranian publishers in exile, declare that we will not rest until the unconditional release of the Samandar Publishing activists and all imprisoned cultural workers.We call on all cultural and academic institutions, international publishers’ associations, and human rights organizations to raise their voices and defend the right to publish without censorship, and the freedoms of expression and thought in Iran.In a world where books, knowledge, and truth have become targets of authoritarian regimes, silence is complicity with oppression.The Islamic Republic must be held accountable for this cultural crime.
29 October 2025
Signatories
Publishers Organizing the International “Books Without Censorship” Exhibitions
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Province Number of signatures Alborz 0 Ardabil 0 Bushehr 0 Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari 0 East Azerbaijan 0 Fars 0 Gilan 0 Golestan 1 Hamadan 0 Hormozgan 0 Ilam 0 Isfahan 0 Kerman 0 Kermanshah 0 Khuzestan 0 Kohgiluyehv And Boyer Ahmad 0 Kurdistan 0 Lorestan 0 Markazi 0 Mazandaran 0 North Khorasan 0 Qazvin 0 Qom 0 Razavi Khorasan 1 Semnan 0 Sistan and Baluchestan 0 South Khorasan 0 Tehran 1 West Azerbaijan 0 Yazd 0 Zanjan 0 This petition has received 37 signatures so far. Approximately 75% of signatures come from Iran. Approximately 25% of signatures come from outside of Iran. Learn how Daadkhast generates signature maps. -
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