12 /10/2013 

Eventually, after twenty days of hard work and searching for school books, I succeeded in having access to the new school books of this year 2013.

Usually, we could get the old versions of the books printed (a few years ago) because we had no choice rather than to accept them. However, this year’s number of books printed was less than the other years, therefore further restrictions were opposed to distributing them and this was the reason why self-governed schools could have fewer opportunities in achieving these books so far.

As I can remember, last year I was asked by the head of the printing and publishing department when I showed him the total number of books I needed, what did I have to do with such a big number of books and my reply was that we needed them for pupils who study in our school. He then inquired for information about our specific school and added that these books have been subsidized by the government but they are illegally transported to Afghanistan. I said, “Sir, even smuggling them to Afghanistan can have benefits for this country and should be a matter of pride for you. After all, they are a reflection of the regime’s ideology so using them would lead to the spread of your culture. As a matter of fact, other countries would budge a big sum of money in order to familiarize themselves with their culture whereas we struggle to use your books and you oppose so many restrictions on them.

After hearing my words, he ordered his assistant to provide me with any number of books I needed. 

Tomorrow and the day after we are going to distribute the books among the children and once again they will be able to smell the fragrance of the school books, a smell which we used to inhale every year with passion and joy when we were in the elementary stage.

Actually the fragrance of school books and notebooks is the specific fragrance for the month of Mehr ( This is the seventh month in Iranian calendar which schools open). The month of tenderness.