The scourge of heritage: the shadow of privacy revisions on historical monuments

These days, from a significant number of cities and historical sites in the country, the voice of shrinking the heritage boundaries has been raised; From Sabzevar to the valuable historical context of Gorgan. The sanctuaries, which these days are subject to many violations, have now become a challenging issue in the field of cultural heritage. On the one hand, cultural heritage activists and activists insist on the need to preserve its full length, and on the other hand, ministries and beneficiary institutions beat the drum of their revision in opaque conditions.

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage has been so weak in determining the privacy of registered works that the Research Center of the Parliament announced in a report last year that with the process of this ministry, 500 years of time is needed to determine the privacy of the country’s national registered works. But this was not the whole story; At a time when the Ministry of Heritage was under criticism for raising the issue of revising the sanctuaries, a plan was passed in the parliament that gave the responsibility of determining and revising the sanctuaries of historical monuments to the Ministry, so that those who wanted to change the sanctuaries, the weak standing of the expert structure of the Ministry of Heritage be comfortable The widespread protest of cultural heritage activists led to the rejection of this issue in the Expediency Council; But the Ministry of Heritage did not leave the key word of revising heritage taboos.

The black and white story of heritage areas

The issue of heritage privacy and related regulations is not a new issue. Although throughout history, the challenge of privacy has always ended at the expense of cultural heritage, this time a few years ago, with the intention of reducing the boundaries of heritage and freeing construction in heritage boundaries, they have started and are leading a trend that is now sovereign in nature. He has also questioned the Ministry of Heritage. The Ministry, which, according to its inherent duties, must protect the heritage sanctuaries centimeter by centimeter, is now on the verge of a turnaround.

Contrary to the claims made, the challenge of heritage areas is more than people’s daily life in contrast with the projects of destruction, elevation, commercialization and unsustainable development. Although many of these projects have been defying all the rules and regulations with all their might for years, and in such a situation, highlighting the problems of people’s lives to justify touching the taboos is only for the purpose of persuading public opinion.

The story that stood out

The story of the need to review heritage taboos was raised more prominently during the ministry of Ezzatullah Zarghami. From the first days of his presence in the ministry, he started this issue with controversial statements about Pasargad and emphasized it for three years. Despite repeated protests to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Iran’s cultural heritage delimitation project was pursued and continued with justifications such as respecting public rights. Although the government and the Minister of Heritage have changed, this opaque project is still on the news, and in recent days, the local officials of some historical areas of the country have officially spoken about the need to stop the heritage taboos.

Hands on the lap of the president!

Seyyedreza Salehi Amiri, the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism in the government of Masoud Bizikian, from his first public appearance as the proposed minister of this ministry in the vote of confidence of the Majlis, confidently promised the Majlisians to review the heritage taboos with the advisors who were the managers of the former minister. Despite the protests to this promise, he still keeps the circle of former managers around him and moves in that direction. Critics have given up on the new Minister of Freedom, and have asked the President to prevent the continuation of this process in the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

In this campaign, which has been signed by three thousand people by the time of writing the report, it is stated:

Unfortunately, many of these events happen with the silence of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts as the legal guardian of Iran’s cultural and natural heritage. An obvious attack on the historical contexts of big cities such as Shiraz, Tehran, Isfahan, Gorgan, Ardabil, Tabriz, Kashan, the 33-hectare Ramsar garden in Mazandaran, the historical contexts of Gilan and many other cities, and the unfortunate order of the Minister of Cultural Heritage to shrink the boundaries of the historical context of Sabzevar and possibly Gorgan and also the strange order of Isfahan governor in handing over the historical building of Isfahan are among the cases of this bitter tragedy.

The main question for your Excellency and the cabinet ministers of the 14th government is whether your priority is to fulfill your sovereign and legal duties or to respond to demands that are out of the ordinary and against the national interests of the country? Did the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts promise to reduce the privacy of Iran’s historical tissues in order to obtain a vote of confidence from the parliament members? Unfortunately, today it is persistently moving in the same direction. This is due to the fact that the deputy of cultural heritage of the Ministry of Education and Culture has no expertise and background related to this field and has made the most technical deputy of this ministry face a challenge. The situation of Iran’s natural heritage is also a sad story, the description of which is very detailed, and in the passive state of the relevant ministry, it has become the arena of bloggers, land grabbers and natural resources traders of Iran, and on the other hand, we are witnessing the prosecution of the real activists of cultural and natural heritage. We are Iran.

The authors of this campaign have requested to Massoud Mezikian:

We, the signatories of this campaign, are against any interference in the privacy and field of Iran’s historical textures and natural monuments and any real or legal action to destroy the cultural heritage of our country; And we hereby request you to act in line with Article 127 of the Constitution, which ultimately directs the above decisions to the President, and Article 136 of the Constitution of Iran, which gives you the authority to transfer the country’s executive directors, and to act in accordance with the dangerous and worrying situation of the heritage. Iran’s cultural and natural heritage and prevent their destruction, issue the necessary orders.

One-sidedness in the issue of taboos

The current minister of cultural heritage is trying so that the issue of heritage taboos does not become a crisis for his ministry and he emphasizes on “expert decision” in responding to this issue. Heritage areas have many challenges and naturally in some places they have led to a difficult life for the natives around them. For years, it has been emphasized to respect the violated rights in such circumstances; But the observance of these rights should not depend on violating the protection laws and prohibitions. Certain cases that should be examined expertly and their solutions should be based on preserving heritage, now in an opaque and collective process called the review of heritage sanctuaries, many sites and buildings have been demarcated to the slaughterhouse, and the little remaining protection has also been done. adjustment and pave the way for further unbalanced development and more powerful loaders.

_{Cover photo: Faeze Kabili}