On November 17, 2023, Dr. Alireza Abiz spoke with the Iran 1400 Project about his book Censorship of Literature in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Politics and Culture since 1979. Dr. Abiz recounted personal encounters with censorship in his upbringing in Iran and explored definitions of censorship. He provided a comprehensive overview of its history, tracing its origins from the 1850s through the Qajar, Pahlavi, and Islamic Republic periods before analyzing its impact on literature in Iran today. During the Q&A, he examined tactics to circumvent censorship, potential institutional methods to manipulate or regulate it, and inventive approaches employed to evade its constraints.
Alireza Abiz is a multi-award-winning Iranian poet, literary scholar, and translator. He studied English Literature in Mashhad and Tehran universities and received his PhD in Creative Writing –Poetry from Newcastle University in the UK. Abiz has written extensively on Persian contemporary literature and culture. Dr. Abiz is a board member of Poetry Translation Centre. He is also co-founder of MAHA, a Persian language online platform for art and literature, and Editor of Radio Now podcasts
