Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, March 9, 2022
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| Mohammad Mahdi Esmaili, Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance |
In cases where educational and cultural activities are ineffective, police force will be used to protect the Persian language and literature.
This was stated by Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad Mahdi Esmaili, during the 13th session on "Protection of the Persian Language and Literature."
According to the official IRIB News agency, the minister emphasized that there will be strict supervision of business and commercial establishment names.
"The decision is that when business licenses are issued, the use of Persian words will be carefully monitored. The Ministry of Islamic Guidance, as the authorized body, will show particular sensitivity regarding this issue. However, if educational and cultural activities are ineffective, we will resort to police force to protect the Persian language and literature so that no harm is done to it," Esmaili stated.The minister also mentioned that in their efforts to protect the Persian language and literature, he did not feel "they had done a good job" and said, "We need to increase our attention to this matter."
Tehran's police also previously announced that using non-Persian names for businesses and commercial establishments in the capital is prohibited.
According to Colonel Nadir Moradi, commander of the Tehran police’s general area control division (Amakin), in December of the previous year, "It is illegal and against the law to use local languages such as Turkish, Kurdish, and Luri for business and commercial establishment names in the capital. The relevant authority overseeing the names used is the Ministry of Guidance and Culture. Based on the instructions sent by the Ministry to the police, the names of commercial establishments must be in Persian."
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
İran mədəniyyət naziri: Fars dilini qorumaq üçün polis gücündən istifadə edəcəyik