Intl. Islamic Resistance Poetry Festival wraps up in southern Iran

TEHRAN,Nov.5 (MNA)-- The second edition of the International Islamic Resistance Poetry Festival was closed during a ceremony in Iranian city of Bushehr on Friday. The festival, which was held from November 2, closed on Friday, marking the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, at the 9 Day Hall of Bushehr. The secretary of the festival Behruz Esbati previously said that the province was selected due to its prominence in national and Islamic resistance against foreign forces. The Basij Organization Commander Brigadier Mohammadreza Naqdi, Bushehr Governor Mohammad Hossein Jahanbakhsh and the leader of Bushehr’s Friday prayer Gholamali Safaei Bushehri attended the ceremony. A total of 50 poems were selected from the poetry submitted and their poets read their works during the non-competitive festival. A total of 1000 poems were submitted to the secretariat of the festival out of which 50 poems were selected for recitation, Esbati mentioned during the ceremony. He said that poems were received from 25 countries including Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Bahrain and Tunis. “I can state that I did not hear a single weak poem and we have also selected nine articles from the submitted works,” he added. The festival had two main sections. One section was dedicated to reciting poetry by the participants and another section focused on academic articles on Islamic resistance submitted to the secretariat. Scholars Hossein Esrafili, Javad Mohaqqeq, and Parviz Beigi-Habibabadi were some of the members of the academic committees of the festival. The festival was cosponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the Mostazafan Foundation and the Revayat-e Fat’h Institute.