.jpg "A poster for a Mahmud Dowlatabadi commemorative postage stamp was signed by a number of cultural figures. (ISNA)")
TEHRAN – Iran has issued a postage stamp to commemorate the 74th birthday of the renowned Iranian author Mahmud Dowlatabadi.
The stamp was unveiled on Friday during a ceremony in Sabzevar, his hometown in Khorasan Razavi Province, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Saturday.
A number of art and cultural figures, academics and several members of the Sabzevar City Council attended the ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ali Fattahi, a veteran theatrical figure from Sabzevar, said, “We need to be brave enough to respect our veterans.”
“Wherever Mahmud is, he is great and respected,” he added.
The ceremony continued with reading the letter of writer and poetess Simin Behbahani written on the occasion of Dowlatabadi’s birthday a few days ago.
Behbahani has been fallen into coma and has been admitted to a Tehran hospital.
“Mahmud Dowlatabadi is a writer who has come from Khorasan to Tehran where his fame has reached the world,” reads part of the message.
“I have read most of his works and congratulate him for his thoughts and words.
“I am writing this while I am in the hospital and I wish him health and wealth. No doubt he is a treasure in the literature of Iran, and most of his works have been translated into different languages of the world” continues the message.
The ceremony was concluded reading part of his famous novel “Kalidar”.
Kalidar is the name of a mountain in Khorasan and tells the story of a family from the Kordestan region of the country who are forced to travel to Sabzevar, having suffered in the political atmosphere that existed in the aftermath of the World War II in Iran.
The reading was accompanied with a traditional live music concert.
Born in 1940, short-story writer and novelist Dowlatabadi was the most prominent Iranian novelist of the 1980s. Self-educated and forced to work from childhood, he spent part of his younger adult years as a stage actor in Tehran.
“The Colonel”, “Kalidar”, “Desert Strata”, “The Trip”, “The Legend of Baba Sobhan”, “The Cowherd”, “Aqil”, “Man” and “Missing Soluch” are among Dowlatabadi’s credits.
RM/YAW
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