Iran's already beleaguered publishing sector is entering its seventh virtual Tehran Book Fair this week in conditions that would have been difficult to imagine even a year ago.
Physical damage to bookshops from US-Israeli strikes, a state-imposed Internet blackout approaching 80 days, a paper crisis deepened by wartime sanctions, and an economy grinding under the weight of conflict.
The virtual expo is normally held concurrently with the Tehran International Book Fair, which would have held its 37th edition this week -- but the physical fair has been ruled out this year, with organizers citing the war and its fallout as the reason the event will be held exclusively online.
The fair, which runs May 16-22 under the slogan "Read for Iran," is itself a measure of how much has changed.
Ali Jafarabadi, CEO of Book City -- Iran's largest chain with nearly 100 branches nationwide -- says at least six of its Tehran locations were damaged or destroyed in US-Israeli strikes since the war began on February 28. In early March, one branch was completely destroyed and two others will require extensive reconstruction.
The organizers of this year's Tehran Virtual Book Fair hold a press conference on May 13.
The Internet shutdown has compounded the disruption. Amir Hosseinzadegan, director of Oghnoosh Publishing, one of Tehran's major houses, said his operation has effectively been shuttered for weeks -- cut off from authors and translators both inside and outside Iran. Before the war, digital communication was already the connective tissue of the industry; now it is gone.
The paper crisis -- a pre-war problem rooted in international sanctions that forced Iran to pay for imports in hard currency -- has sharply worsened under wartime economic conditions. Publishers say production costs are rising weekly, making books increasingly unviable to print and sell.
"The price of paper, glue, binding, and other materials has skyrocketed, rising daily and weekly," Hosseinzadegan said. "By the time a book is actually published, the publisher has effectively already lost money."
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War And Internet Blackout Push Iran's Economy Even Further Toward The BrinkHe told reporters that selling a book priced under 10 million rials (approximately $5.50) at the fair's mandatory 15 percent discount is simply not economically rational, and over half his catalog falls below that threshold.
Officials have tried to cast the virtual fair as a lifeline: a 1-million-rial ($0.55) voucher for buyers, free shipping on up to two packages per national ID, and, for the first time, a digital publishers' section. Meanwhile, the government is subsidizing postage for children's books, framed as a gesture of solidarity with victims of a missile strike on a school in Minab that killed over 160 schoolchildren. But publishers are skeptical that any of it can close the gap.
A mural depicting the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is reflected in a bookshop window display in Tehran on May 12.
The bookshelves that remain open tell their own story.
In a field report from Enqelab Street, Tehran's historic book district, the Iranian Book News Agency found windows filled with titles on war, contemporary history, America, Israel, and the Middle East. Kafka, Camus, and Orwell sit alongside books on the Iran-Iraq war and US foreign policy.
Street vendors selling banned books have not disappeared. But the bookshops around them are thinning out, replaced in some cases by cafes, as the economics of selling print in wartime become increasingly untenable.