BBC Monitoring

Text of commentary by [Mrs] Jamileh Kadivar headlined "Women and the ceiling of tolerance of men of state" published by Iranian newspaper E'temad website on 31 January

The monthly Women has been closed as well. Apparently, the series of closure of publications has no intention of stopping. The monthly Women provided an opportunity for women to become acquainted with their own issues just as all the other publications specific to women have claimed and continue to claim. However, in describing the monthly Women one has to say that it put others in the shadow. If Women had failed to raise women's problems or attract an audience, it would not have faced any problems.

It is one of the wonders of our homeland that as soon as a publication begins to soar and find general acceptance, it dies prematurely. Sharq and Ham-Mihan were of this kind. This time round it was the turn of a publication that had managed to stand for nearly two decades. Now, it has been eliminated from the press structure of the country. To destroy prosperous edifices is not an act of value. The skill is in building, producing and consistent progress through th! e cultural rough terrain. One can destroy in a trice cultural monuments that have entailed the hardships of hundreds of cultural engineers with one bulldozer.

All those who are acquainted with the press know what endurance, patience and persistence is required for founding a publication and what apprehensions are entailed in that. They are able to sense that after many years a publication becomes part of the identity of its editor and publisher. The reality of his life takes form with the publication.

In the past long years, Mrs Sherkat had turned the monthly Women into a successful and influential publication. Women had become her identity, her life and part of the cultural identity of the community of women. How can one console her, the editorial board and the audience that used to count the seconds every month for "Women" to be published and express regret over the lowering of the ceiling of the tolerance of the politicians for accepting the min! imums? When the cultural guardians become the plaintiffs themselves, w hat else can one expect?

In the continued process of the community becoming ever more monophonic and every opposing voice being eliminated the occurrence of such actions in the future should not be considered strange or farfetched.

Source: E'temad website, Tehran, in Persian 31 Jan 08