Hossein Hashempoor: Based on parliament changes in cultural committee of the eleventh assembly/Culture in the Principlist party's hands
TEHRAN –(Iranart) -Read an article by Hossein Hashempour about the cultural commission of the 11th parliament:
In an interesting occurrence, all members of cultural committee displaced, the entire assembly of tenth been removed and eleventh train assembly is on the rail to work but the more comical thing is a repetition of same news title, published as per four years ago which is: 'disinclination of parliament representatives for cultural committee membership'.
The extent of this reluctance was also remarkable, while each committee must have 19 members, according to a conservative party media the first priority is only six representatives which next day it has been toped up to twelve according to another reporter, it seems at the end of working hours by force another seven members pushed in. This repetitious subject – the reluctance of being cultural committee member – during every parliament major changes recently is enough to sense the peak of art oppression in Iran one more time. Its witness is a Mehr News reporter's title contained: 'failed candidates down-falling from other committees of parliament into the cultural division', this clearly tells the true stories, the chief editor of Iran Art, Hossein Hashempour said.
Maher news continues: in all periods of the Islamic parliament, those candidates who are not getting the acceptable scores to work in more serious sections, inevitably are moving to unwanted sections look like culture which is a serious warning alarm for such a committee, in a more tragic condition than before.
However changes among the cultural committee of parliament were predictable since most of the candidates were disqualified or no one voted for them to maintain as chairman, Hashempour said.
Demonising the cultural committee of parliament
Mid-June 2016, I wrote this title as a response to the remonstrative interview of Nasrollah Pezhmanfar with the FARS news agency. Those days Mr. Pezhmanfar said that some colleagues want to project cultural sections as a demon. It was the day before he became the head of the 10th parliament's cultural committee.
In that draft I have exposed nine questions to discuss such as; do artists basically know the members of this committee? Does the cultural committee take the side of blocking, arresting, arrestment, and holdup movies, taking down banners and posters of cinema or theatres? Or praising art community for each global success? Of course, it was a bitter taste for many position holders but I've referred to one of my major questions in September 2015 which were 'Are the parliament and art society are two parallel lines?'
Resistance frontier Sheik's presidency on culture
Among members of the renovated assembly in culture division hardly we can see familiar names but the head of 11th committee is the most visible name – Morteza Agha-Tehrani – which even a principlist party's newspaper called Sobh-e-Now (new day) titled 'Resistance frontier Sheik's presidency on culture', this is the newspaper which is more close to Mr. Ghalibaf the 11th speaker of the parliament of Iran. The news contains: 'An Isfahani clergy who became the head of the 11th cultural committee of parliament is a combination of a cultural, clergy and a political personality. When Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, Iran's ex-president took the leading position of the country, Mr. Agha-Tehrani became the government cabinet's master of ethics. He was teaching ethics ones a week. Agha-Tehrani in the 8th and 9th parliaments became the candidate officially, later established the Resistance Frontier Party, and as its head is leading his party… he was funded by Ayatollah Mesbah to learn at Hoze-ye-Elmiye (a religious jurisprudence school), to empower his knowledge moved to Canada, and graduated with a bachelor of mysticism from Mack Gill University and later from Sony Bing University in U.S.A graduated with a bachelor of Western Philosophy.
His return to Iran and his presence in each period of parliament as a representative correspondently established Resistance Frontier Party made him an important political figure and recently he became the head of the cultural committee of 11th parliament which contains many challenges in recent years. We have to wait and see how he handles such a position besides making a balance between his political thought and his favorited party'.
Weight of cultural committee
Fortunately or unfortunately any changes in the cultural committee of parliament don't have any influence on artists' society. Thus with hearing about reluctance to get the chair in the culture committee of parliament by candidates, they won't be disappointed. Alas, that an official lawmaker division portrait itself in such away.
The chief editor of Iran Art says: in mid-June 2016, when the Islamic Consultative Assembly news agency announced that Ali Larijani together with Ali Motahari the speaker and vice president of the 10th parliament became members of cultural committee, many followers thought the committee will change its course from lethargy to the life celebration of art and its society. The number of members in a list called List-e-Omid (the Hope List) was equal with Principlist candidates which increased hope but in reality, still, the voice of such committee was Nasrollah Pezhman or Ahmad Salek. In all their years of presence, they didn't go to any theatre or a concert!
at the moment, a few members who are less than the past four years still having hope on Mr. Ghalibaf since while he was in the municipality, he has done some cultural works maybe a new speaker of parliament can do something. However, on paper, those hope holders can see the formation of a cultural committee and complete domination of right-wing parties is a serious challenge for art and culture society.