TEHRAN – Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri, the new director of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, has said that President Hassan Rouhani has ordered him to liven up the cultural atmosphere of the country.

Speaking at an interview broadcast live on TV last Wednesday night, he said, “I promise the cultural community to speed up the country’s culture train as well as to liven up it.”

“This is an order that I received from the president,” he added.

Salehi-Amiri who was formerly the director of the National Library and Archives of Iran took the helm at the culture ministry last Tuesday after winning a vote of confidence at Majlis.

He succeeded Ali Jannati who resigned from the position under pressure from certain groups, which viewed concerts and other programs authorized by the ministry un-Islamic.

“Music is necessary for society and we cannot ignore it,” Salehi-Amiri said.

“However, it must be produced based on legal frameworks and Sharia,” he added.

He also said, “A concert in the Islamic Republic of Iran must observe the moral principles, but now I think it actually has been of secondary importance to the event itself.”

Salehi-Amiri said that he plans to manage the ministry “totally in a specialized way to prevent an intervention from the external environment.”

“Political elements should separate their playground from the culture’s play area,” he noted.

Photo: Culture Minister Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri in an undated photo (Mehr/Sina Shiri)

MMS/YAW