Letters

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Tuesday
June 5, 2001

Had to pay

I can't remember the name of the person who has written a letter about the entrance to the exhibition at the Barbican being free ["Thank you, Ms. Issa"]. He is so self-centred that he has not realised the exhibiton at the Barbican was only a small part of a bigger event called "Unveiled" in which about 20 films from Iran, mostly by Iranian women in the last ten years, were exhibited (Ticket prcie: £10 or there abouts per film).

Plus there was a full-day conference on Iranian cinema and the role of Iranian women film makers in it, in whch women filmmakers from inside Iran, plus Sheerin Neshat from New York, took part as speakers, The fee for this one-day conference alone was £30).

And there was a three-day conference on Iranian poetry in which Iranian poets and writers from inside Iran, Canada, USA, Germany and France took part as speakers (without getting paid for the work they did). The entrance fee for this three-day conference alone was £50 but because not many purchsed advance tickets, it was reduced to £30 at the door.

Rose Issa and Sheila Whitaker and Univesity of London, SOAS, all had a finger stuck in all of these events, I mean they were all magassaan-e-gerd-e-sheeriny. Audiences who attended literally five minutes before the end of the conference were asked to pay at least £5 each, i.e. £1 per minute.

Neither of the speakers who attended these conferences and screenings of their films etc were paid a penny as a fee or kaarmozd. Musicians from Iran and Tajeekestan were invited to SOAS to play for free for a paying audience who attended these conferences; mind you their transport from Iran and Tajikestan to London (airfares only) was paid but on the condition that they produced tickets and boarding cards. No expenses for travel inside London, from Heathrow to London University and the Barbican, was paid because they had forgotten to obtain receipt from taxi drivers, bus drivers and underground ticket offices.

And the food with which they were served during these conferences was of the poorest quality: that is, sandwiches which were made at the university refectory for students and patrons. If this is not enslavement of Iranian poets, writers, university professors, literary workers and film critics by the organisers of this huge event, what else can it be? I mean how else can it be described in a country like England which is class ridden: that is, only the poorest working class, nobodies, unimportant people are treated like this / the way our top lierary workers and artists were treated by a bunch of gold diggers whose every expense was paid by the Islamic Republic plus their wages and sallaries and the things I described in my previous letter ["Gold digger"].

Yours Sincerely,

Rana Bahar

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