Mir-Hossein Mousavi dismissed from Iranian Academy of Arts

Mo’allem Damghani, 58, is famous for his poems composed on the Islamic Revolution and 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, known as the Sacred Defense in Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after traveling to Fars Province on Tuesday morning, came back that evening to head the meeting of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council that made the decision. However, he returned to resume his visit to the province, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Tuesday.

Actor Jahangir Almasi, Ahmadinejad’s advisor on veterans affairs and Sacred Defense author Mojtaba Rahmandust, and Ahmadinejad’s media advisor Mehdi Kalhor were selected as new members of the IAA.

Ahmadinejad’s major rival in the 12 June presidential election, Mousavi had helmed the IAA from 1998 when the academy was established by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council headed by former president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami.

In early November, the Iranian government modified the article 8 of the IAA charter to empower the president to personally appoint the IAA director.

According to the former article, the director was selected by the IAA General Assembly from among three nominees.

A number of IAA members raised strong objections to the government’s decision, threatening to resign if a director is imposed upon the academy.

Similar modifications have been made in the charters of the Iranian Academy of Sciences, the Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

MMS/YAW

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MNA