Iranian publishing is facing a critical situation, with fewer people buying books and more and more bookshops closing down. The Ghanoon website reports that stores in the major city of Isfahan in particular “are facing a slow death.Most have already closed down for lack of cash and been replaced by other businesses.”

Many factors have contributed to the situation, including a fall in the number of books being read, the general economic crisis in the country, the limited number of publications that get past the censorship laws, high taxation on booksellers and publishers and the increasing popularity of books published online.

Official figures show that while the Iranian population increased by 10 million in the last decade, the number of books published in the same period plunged by over 12%. Print runs have been severely reduced, as born out by figures from the trade magazine Kaghaz Khabar, which said the average in the 90s was 5300, whereas now it is only around 3000.

Source: Shahrzadnews