Iranian Writers Association’s open letter
to Gabriel García Márquez

Dear Mr. Gabriel García Márquez, esteemed writer

The visit you reportedly planned to make to Iran was good news to us, Iranian writers and poets. Under favorable circumstances, the visit could provide us with the opportunity to meet an author of world renown who, by writing memorable novels, has devoted his time and life to fighting injustice and dictatorship.

Nevertheless, we have to warn you that you would be traveling to a land that resembles the tyranny-ridden countries in your novels; a Macondo where people struggling for freedom end up with a fate like that of the row of banana plantation workers in One Hundred Years of Solitude; a land where, in the not distant past, writers such as Saied Soltanpour, member of IWA’s board of secretaries, went before the firing squad; a land where, a few years ago two prominent and active members of IWA, Mohammad Mukhtari and Mohammd-Ja’far Pouyandeh, were abducted and later found in the desert, strangled. The criminals escaped prosecution. Instead, Nasser Zarafshan, another member of IWA and the lawyer for the victims’ families, spent five years in prison only for defending their case in a court of law. At least five other members of IWA were among the thousands of campaigners for the cause of freedom who were murdered in the last two decades.

We are sorry to inform you the Persian translations of your books have to wait for years to receive publication permits, and that as many as fifty pages of your One Hundred Years of Solitude have been expurgated by the censors.

The Iranian government has at times been condemned by international bodies for gross violations of human rights, while cultural figures and representatives of human rights groups visiting Iran have been denied access to members of IWA and other independent cultural and social groups. Otherwise, they could have had a better picture of the horrendous events in this country.

Please beware of condoning the injustice and crimes against cultural and social activists, justifying censorship, and legitimizing their sponsors by coming to this country, alas, with no opportunity to meet with independent cultural and social figures.

We should note that IWA, an independent association, has been struggling for the cause of freedom of thought and expression and elimination of censorship since the late 1960s, losing several of its members on this path. That is why we deem it unadvisable to remain silent on your planned visit to Iran.

Wishing you good health, we hope we will host you in more auspicious circumstances.

Iranian Writers Association

Tehran

May 2007