Why do they want to remove the word “Advice” from the board of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance?

According to Fars news agency’s art reporter, on the evening of August 30, Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili took part in a special television news talk show and presented a report on the state of culture and art and announced new news from this ministry.

Perhaps one of the interesting news that came out of his mouth was the change of name of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Esmaili said: “In the seventh program, there was a discussion to move this work forward. Friends welcomed in the parliament. Our foundation is to choose a name with the friends of the parliament and based on the seventh bill, with that long revolutionary view and statement of the second step and in accordance with the new views in the field of cultural management. In my opinion, it will be an important change if the important orientations and dreams that are necessary for culture and art are placed at the forefront of the work and the activities are directed in this direction.

What kind of approach is going to be taken to choose the name and on what basis the changes based on the new name will be applied, was a question that was raised for people of culture and art since the announcement of this news.

Now, after a few days of this conversation, Mohammad Sarshar, the writer and former manager of the Pooya and Nahal TV channel, wrote on his personal page in the virtual space: “The proposers of the new name “Ministry of Islamic Culture and Civilization” should be asked if the rest of the great civilizations (for example, based on Huntington’s theory), do they have a ministry of Western or Orthodox or Eastern (Japanese/Chinese/Buddhist/Indian) or Latin American or African civilization that these nobles want to wrap such a version for us?

Where does the name of a ministry come from?

The first point in facing this incident is a question; Where does the name of a ministry come from? Or according to which characteristics the name of a ministry changes? Certainly, the answer is nothing but “the name of a ministry is chosen according to its duties and missions”, but perhaps the more important question at this time is the conditions and reasons for changing the names of these centers.

To answer this question, we must look at the history of changes in the names of government institutions and centers. Perhaps one of the most famous of them is changing the name of the Ministry of Sports to the Ministry of Sports and Youth; Where a word “youth” was added to the name of the Ministry of Sports. The reason for this change at that time was the dissolution of the National Youth Organization and of course the post of Vice President for Youth Affairs and its merger with the Ministry of Sports, and the change in the missions of the Ministry of Sports also changed its name.

Now, about the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, it can be said that choosing the name of guidance for this ministry is related to its supervisory duties. Even if you take a look at the duties and policies section of the website of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, you will realize the supervisory importance of this collection, but the question here is whether there has been a change in this aspect of the duties of guidance, which resulted in the change of the name of this ministry?

This is where media people remember the emphasis of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to include the title “Ministry of Culture” and “Minister of Culture” in the news sent by this ministry and understand the purpose of all this emphasis and focus on the title “Ministry of Culture”; Remove guidance!

There is a long distance from name to action

From changing the name of a group to changing its function, there are many ways, and perhaps groups that have changed their function without changing their name, and many institutions that have changed their name to divert attention from their functions.

What is not possible about the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Civilization or anything else, and there is no doubt about the sincerity of the intentions of the Minister and his colleagues, but adding the section “Islamic Civilization” to the name of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is a civilizational practice. will become one of the requirements of this ministry’s programs; An incident that is not visible at least today in the behavior of this ministry and has no plans for it.

Another point that needs to be noted about the Islamic Civilization section in the proposed name is the similar missions of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage in this section. Certainly, a part of Islamic civilization includes buildings that are left over from the history of Islam; So maybe the name of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Islamic Civilization can be welcomed more.

Finally, the presence of the phrase “Islamic civilization” in the name of a ministry is more like a rhetorical generalization than determining an operational axis; Because there are so many examples of Islamic civilization that the entire Islamic Republic of Iran should be considered a part of it. Perhaps, instead of changing the name to preserve civilization, we should add Islamization to the duties and missions of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which has the same function.

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