TEHRAN – Following the damage to cultural institutions and bookstores—including several branches of the BookCity Institute in Tehran—consequent to recent military strikes, Ali Jafarabadi, CEO of BookCity and a member of the international alliance Publishers Without Borders (PWB), provided a report on the current state of book culture to the alliance.
Jafarabadi reported to PWB the severe damage to six BookCity branches: Markazi, Bahman, Alghadir, Almas, Iranshahr, and Haft-Hoz. “International bodies and global mechanisms are a great capacity,” he stated. “We can and must use them, following global standards, to defend the truth, the rights of children, and to protect cultural businesses, especially during this economic crisis.”
Following consultations with PWB leaders who reached out to express solidarity, the alliance issued a statement titled “Children’s Right to Read.” The text aims to offer more than routine condemnation.
“Publishers Without Borders is unequivocally against all wars,” the statement reads. “Armed conflict, regardless of where it occurs, always places books, publishers, authors, booksellers, libraries, and readers at risk. War destroys more than buildings and infrastructure; it disrupts the cultural, intellectual, and emotional ecosystems that allow societies – and especially children – to grow.”
The statement recalls PWB’s origin during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as “a space for dialogue, solidarity, and mutual support – especially when books, culture, and freedom are under pressure.”
The declaration insists that access to books is a fundamental human right. “Just as the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbolize the right to health and physical well-being,” the statement argues, “access to books and the freedom to read should be recognized as equally vital to intellectual, emotional, and cultural well-being.”
The statement directly addresses the rights of children: “Children everywhere share the same right to read, to imagine, to learn, and to grow without fear. Access to books should never depend on geography, language, belief, or circumstance.”
PWB warns that when bookstores and schools are destroyed, “children lose not only books, but safe and meaningful places to gather.” It calls on the international publishing community and human rights organizations to reaffirm their responsibility to protect three fundamental freedoms: Freedom to Write, Freedom to Publish, and Freedom to Read.
“Protecting books means protecting people,” the statement concludes. “Protecting bookstores and reading spaces means protecting the places where ideas are formed. Protecting the right to read means protecting the world children are allowed to imagine – and build.”
The statement ends with two core messages: “Reading Knows No Borders. Children Know No Borders.”
For BookCity, which has long served as a guardian of national cohesion through culture, this international recognition is a call to action. Jafarabadi emphasized that PWB’s statement shows that even when borders are closed, the republic of letters remains open, and readers and booksellers are not alone.
The full English text of the statement is available on the PWB internal forum. BookCity plans to publish a Persian translation alongside this report on its official website, bookcity.org, as a testament to the resilience of cultural infrastructure.
