Namak Magazine - Strange Times

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The Dangerous Task of Publishing
The Q&A below, with Nahid Mozaffari, editor of Strange Times, My Dear, the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature, is a follow up to her detailed description in Namak magazine, of the ordeal she and her colleagues endured to publish the book.

1. -Was Strange Times, My Dear published in defiance of the law you mentioned or was it published after the General License was issued?
Strange Times was published in defiance of the law. The license came a few months after the book went into press.

2. What is its current status?
The current status is uncertain. With the general license, we are OK, it seems, but as the publisher, Dick Seaver said, "Even as general licenses can be issued, so can they be revoked, thus reinstating censorship." The point is that in the United States, one should not have to apply to the government for permission to publish at all, period. We didn't apply for permission and sued, and in this case, the government deemed it more convenient to issue a blanket permit rather than to fight this in court.

3. What compelled you to take the legal risk you took in getting the book published? Would you do it again?
Belief in the rule of law and the principle of freedom of expression compelled us to take this legal risk. There are certain principles which have to be upheld and fought for despite the risk of personal inconvenience or financial loss. Yes, I would do it again.

4. What was the most important lesson you learned through this process?
I learned many important lessons through this process, but the most important ones that I can list are:

1) Various levels of censorship exist right here in the United States. The OFAC rule was a bizarre example of government censorship, but I discovered other kinds. When you try to publish literature translated from other languages, you come across a kind of commercial censorship as well, in other words, mainstream publishers don't think they can sell these works, so they don't publish them. This comes from and feeds into a problem that I believe we all have to fight as Iranians and as Americans, and that is the problem of the general ignorance of most Americans towards other countries and cultures. We have to make our voices heard through these various levels of censorship by producing high quality work. But we also have to be vigilant that what we say and write isn't used for Iran bashing and other short sighted political causes.

2) Writing continues to be a very dangerous business in Iran. Most writers write while holding one or two other jobs, and they constantly have to navigate through the treacherous alleys of censorship, political manipulation and imprisonment. International recognition is one possible way to help them through these difficult experiences.