Iran bets on reading revival as ministers target piracy, digital habits
Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Abbas Salehi on Tuesday urged Iran’s publishing sector to seize the momentum of this year’s National Book Week and build a new reading culture that keeps pace with rapid social and technological shifts.
Speaking to representatives from across the industry in central Tehran, he said the market needs determined efforts to “stir demand” and reclaim readers who have drifted towards fast digital content, IRNA reported.
Iran’s National Book Week, held nationwide from November 15 to 23, has taken on added weight this year as the government tries to reverse two decades of sliding non-academic reading.
The long-term decline remains stark, yet senior officials insist the transition to digital literacy has created a new opening for Iranian publishers, educational institutions and audiobook platforms. They make it clear that changing media habits should be treated not as a threat, but as an opportunity to reposition the industry.
Salehi cited national surveys showing that the share of people reading non-textbook material has halved since 2003.
But he also pointed to daily consumption of roughly 70 minutes of essays, commentary and scientific media on digital platforms, proof, he argued, that Iranians still crave knowledge, only in different formats.
He pressed the industry to align with these habits rather than resist them, saying old assumptions about readers have become “a costly mistake”.
He told guilds that the ministry will lean into demand-building policies. Civil-service training, he said, can incorporate curated reading lists, while schools and kindergartens must prepare for structural changes that will alter how printed, audio and digital books appear in the curriculum.
Piracy remains a major concern, but the ministry now frames it as an area where decisive enforcement could finally steady the market.
Salehi said the government intends to pursue illicit reprints and digital theft “from the root” and revive earlier campaigns that sharply reduced illegal copies. A new similarity-tracking platform will fast-track action against the unauthorized scraping of published texts. Several mid-sized publishers say these measures, if fully implemented, could restore enough confidence for them to commission more ambitious titles in philosophy, social sciences and contemporary history.
President Masoud Pezeshkian reinforced the cultural message in a post on X, calling reading the nation’s route to “staying alive” and remaining in the “caravan of civilization”.
His intervention has been welcomed by university presses that want stronger ties with the administration to rebuild reading communities on campus.
Qader Ashena, Salehi’s senior adviser and secretary of the Public Culture Council, echoed the optimism during a student book festival in Tehran.
He described the printed book as a “civilizational anchor” despite the rise of artificial intelligence and argued that university life must restore reading as a daily habit.
He praised Iran’s decades of academic cultural institutions, from student theater festivals to early opinion-polling centers, and said their revival can help push books back into the mainstream.
Audiobook studios in Tehran report brisk growth, driven by long commuter hours and young listeners seeking structured content.
Publishers say these platforms, combined with tighter anti-piracy measures and targeted incentives, could help bridge the gap between Iran’s literary heritage and its modern digital consumption patterns.