Call for Protecting Youshij House

The recent removal of the house of Nima Youshij, the Persian poet, from the National Heritage List has provoked a backlash from the heritage community, including officials of Tehran City Council.

The renowned poet’s house, located in the northern Tehran district of Tajrish, was inscribed on the National Heritage List in 2001 on his sixth death anniversary.

However, it was removed from the list in Nov. 2017 following a verdict by the Court of Administrative Justice, apparently due to the absence of any legally valid deed showing the house belonged to the literary personality, ISNA reported.

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of TCC’s Cultural Heritage Committee, was among the critics of the move.  

“Nima was the father of modern poetry in Iran and his house is a reminder of this figure. It must not turn into a [residential] tower,” he said, calling on Tehran Municipality and the provincial office of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization to enter into negotiation with the owner of the property and find a way to protect the building.

He added that although the houses of contemporary figures are not of historical value, they are memorials of those people and therefore worthy of being regarded as national heritage.

Khalilabadi called on the judiciary and the Court of Administrative Justice to reconsider the case.

Vajiheh Qasemi, director of public relations at Tehran’s ICHHTO office, also regretted that in view of the court’s verdict, ICHHTO can do nothing to protect the building.

“It has no national value now,” she said.

Unconfirmed reports say illegal institutes strike a deal with the owners of heritage buildings to remove the property from the national list so as to acquire a permit for reconstruction. This has made the cultural heritage community more sensitive toward such cases.

Nima is considered the father of modern Persian poetry, as he founded the movement in Persian poetry recognized as New Poetry in Iran.