Active Participation of the Saadi Foundation in the Thirty-fifth Tehran International Book Fair

Seyed Ali Mousavizadeh, Deputy of International Affairs at the Saadi Foundation and Director of Azfa International Publications

Active Participation of the Saadi Foundation in the Thirty-fifth Tehran International Book Fair

2024-05-18 13:34

Seyed Ali Mousavizadeh, Deputy of International Affairs at the Saadi Foundation and Director of AZFA International Publications, attended the Saadi Foundation's booth at the 35th Tehran International Book Fair.

The Saadi Foundation was established in 2011 to promote and expand the Persian language and Persian language education worldwide, starting its serious activities in 2013. This center is responsible for standardizing language education, providing educational content, and training teachers of Persian language and literature, which is beneficial both for foreigners who want to learn this language and for our heritage generations.

In recent years, due to the high ranking of the country's universities and the low cost of education in Iran, many foreigners come to Iran for their studies, which has increased the foundation's audience. Accordingly, fifty AZFA centers have been established and are operational in universities across the country, and the AZFA program is taught at the master's and doctoral levels.

Regarding the Tehran Book Fair, Seyed Ali Mousavizadeh stated: "Book fairs are recognized as cultural events worldwide, but what happens in Iran is much more dynamic in terms of both execution and audience participation. This competition among publishers for a more active presence at the fair is evident, and this opportunity, which has turned the Imam Khomeini Musalla into a gathering of intellectuals, is a very suitable opportunity for cultural activities and exchanges, and all organizations should seize and benefit from this opportunity."

During the fair, the staff of the Saadi Foundation have focused all their energy on the fair's activities and established good international relations. In this path, negotiations have been held with Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and ECO. For example, with ECO, negotiations have been made regarding bringing professors from ECO member countries for training and knowledge enhancement to the Saadi Foundation.

This foundation has not yet reached a stage in its publishing section where it can hold serious talks with foreign publishers on copyright and similar matters, and its focus has been more on content provision. Fortunately, the Sitfa system, which is a self-study Persian language platform, is ready to launch this year, turning the potential educational capacities of this center into reality.

The content production of the Saadi Foundation began with Dr. Reza Morad Sahraei, and after his transfer to the Ministry of Education, Dr. Zand Moghadam, a faculty member at Allameh Tabataba'i University, replaced him. Mousavizadeh added: "Naturally, the decision to use the educational methods of the Saadi Foundation in the Ministry of Education is up to the ministry itself, but we hope that with Dr. Sahraei's presence in the ministry, the standards and educational content of the Saadi Foundation will be used in the education of our children."

He continued: "The volume of our publications has fortunately increased significantly, but given the difficulties of sending books to other countries, negotiations have been made, including a contract with a publisher in Turkey, where the standard educational content of this foundation will be printed and published by this publisher for Turkey."

In conclusion, he stated: "Our main goal is to expand the Persian language worldwide, and we will continue our activities regardless of any political issues. We are even ready to send the text of our books to those who, for any reason, have limitations in using our published books so that they can print them under their own name in their country, provided it does not deviate from the standards and cultural and ethical frameworks of this foundation."

The thirty-fifth period of the Tehran International Book Fair with the slogan "We Read, We Build" takes place in Imam Khomeini Mosalla from May 8 till May 18, and also online in ketab.ir .