Our literature is rapidly declining

Starting with acting, wherein your world does this profession fit?

I can not say that acting is my whole world, but it is one of the priorities in my life.

Among your work is directing children, what is the difference between working with children and working with adults?

It’s very, very different, and I can safely say that people who have worked with children know that it is much, much harder to work with children than adults. Actually, I worked with children before I entered university, and I have a history of teaching creative theater to children for both beginners and advanced level children. Now, why is it harder to work with children, kids nowadays are always getting smarter with technology which has had a huge impact on them. Because it takes a lot to keep kids calm and seated, and your work has to be fun enough for that to happen because kids are honest and they are not like adults, an adult might go to a theater and because of the expenses, or because of their friend who is on stage or someone who sits next to them and accompanies them, does not turn their head, doesn’t check their phone, but the children are honest with you, they walk around the hall, they go play around and come back and talk to other kids. The children these days don’t fear their teacher anymore, so it is much harder to work with children because you have to keep them happy, make them laugh, and at the same time you have a responsibility and you have to teach the children something.

How serious is reporting and hosting for you?

Now that I am talking to you, reporting has changed for me. I have been the reporter for the famous program “Dar Shahr” which had a large audience and also the program “Salam Tehran”. Nowadays you can find my reports in my Instagram stories, I do the same thing I did before, I report to people, but the topics are more diverse and have no external influence on them, in addition to the events of the day and what happens to people and the cities I travel to, I report on my personal life, reporting now has become much more important to me than before because it is in the moment and the reports I publish in the story are much more comprehensive and complete than the reports I even prepared for television.

Ms. Athari, how much of your creative artistry goes to your writing, and can you please talk about the books you published?

Since I have read dramatic literature at the university, I can never stop writing, only the shape of my writing changes. Now I write the ads I get for my IG page, I write for the contents of my pages and then I create them, and that means they are not improvisations, I have a page called “Become More Cultured” where I write about cultural issues and I have a booklet that can even be published later as a book. I have dealt with and categorized them, the culture of apartment living, the culture of using technology, the culture of mobile phones, the culture of neighborhood, travel, and many other things. I have written a children’s book that is about recycling and parts of it are poetry and have made it into two plays, I have received an award for the plays, but I have not published another book, and you, as someone who works in this field, know better that, the publishing industry in Iran is facing a lot of problems, both financially and that the publishers don’t publish the book someone wrote who is not that well known.

What is the position of Iranian literature today? Forward, retreating or stagnant?

I am not an expert in this field, but I can express my personal opinion based on my experiences, considering the growth of the use of social media in recent years, especially in Iran, and the membership of a large number of people with different age groups on Instagram. They see the types of content and when we see which content gets more views and likes, we see that unfortunately, obscene and absurd literature is seen more and this is an undeniable part of Instagram. By looking at it, one can understand that reading books, introducing a book, and talking about literature itself, and even someone who plays an instrument beautifully does not attract as much audience as someone who comes and produces absurd content. If we could say that our literature is static, it might be better, but I think our literature is going backward a lot and those who are experts should think about it, the truth is that unfortunately, this is happening right now in Iran.

Radio is also noticed in your artistic career, how much do people care about radio?

This is one of my honors, I have worked in radio for a short time, but it has always been intriguing to me, I am a radio listener myself, of course. If I want to be more clear, I am a podcast listener, because the podcasts give you more freedom, you can choose what content to choose that day because the specialization where the podcast is produced is very diverse, from psychological and self-knowledge and socio-economic issues to humorous podcasts that are just for laughter and entertainment, I think a lot of people have grown up with radio, especially those who have cars and taxis, but these past few years I have seen the number of people who did not listen to the radio but listen to podcasts is increasing, I think radio is attractive because I can imagine when you watch a movie, you lose a part of your imagination while listening to the radio, I am the one who imagines from the sound what that person looks like and what he is saying in my mind, and listening to the radio has always been fascinating to me to boost my creativity.

What art activity would you like to do that you can’t do at the moment?

Dance is one of the arts that has no place in our country, I do not judge if it’s good or bad, but because I am subject to the laws of my country, I could not pursue it, but it has been one of my favorite activities, of course, I have experience dancing in a theater and I have played a one-woman show that was very interesting to me. I rehearsed the show for six months and, thank God, I won the award for the second-best actress at that festival.
But as it really is in the world of dance, it wasn’t as it should have been. Dance is one of the most fascinating professions for me that I could not do, another is playing the violin, which I was learning for a year and I did somewhat well and left it for some reason. Music takes patience and a lot of love, and at the end of it, it takes a little talent, of course, I play the melodica and I have been practicing for a while now, but the violin was something I might go back to later.

Talk about the activities ahead and tell us are you satisfied with what you have achieved so far?

I have many goals but I do not talk about them at all because I prefer to act on them, the work that I’ve been doing will make so much noise, that my friends will see from the posts and stories that it is enough and it is better to not to mention it at all.
I like to work internationally and maybe my immigration has a lot to do with this, the dream of becoming a tourist and working internationally not only for Persian speakers but for all the people around the world. I have taken steps in this field and I am working and trying, it takes time and I am patient, I wish success for everyone, one of those cliché sentences, but you should always say it and mean it.
Thank you for choosing me for the conversation, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, thank you and the Artist Newspaper, and I wish you all success and that you achieve all that your heart desires.

Where can we find and contact you?
Via my Instagram page: @SarahAthari

Abbas Ali Eskeleti

Reporter