We Are the Writers!: A Statement by 134 Iranian Writers

Extract

On 15 October 1994, 134 writers in Iran composed and published a statement in the form of an open letter entitled “We Are the Writers!” Writers with different cultural and political orientations signed this document to publicly support the establishment of a writers' association and oppose censorship.

The publication of “We Are the Writers!,” while attracting considerable support both inside and outside Iran, outraged the Islamic regime. Several signatories were approached by pro-government media to explain their action. Some authors were pressured to disavow the content of the letter. The signatories were accused of political conspiracy against the Islamic Republic. As the statement carefully and emphatically underlines, however, the association was to be apolitical and primarily centered on the writers' professional concerns, including copyright, censorship, paper shortage, and cost of publication. The official reaction points to a fundamental trait of writing in Iran: the very act of writing, regardless of content, is political.