Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Article 24 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran is assigned to the freedom of the press: “Publications and the press have freedom of expression except when it is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public. The details of this exception will be specified by law”.^[1] As the article states, two major boundaries should govern the freedom of expression: no harm to the principles of Islam; and no harm to the rights of the public.

The legal code or system of governing the press such as newspapers and magazines is detailed in the Press Law of 1979 ratified by the Council of the Islamic Revolution, the Press Law of 1986, and the Law on the Amendment of the Press Law of 2000 ratified by the Parliament.^[2]

In the field of books, the details of the restrictions of freedom of expression have been defined by the acts issued by the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution. The first regulation in this regard was approved by the council in 1988 and put into force by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The act was titled Goals, Policies, and Terms of Book Publishing. It was revised in 2010, nearly 20 years later, and the new title is the Resolution of the Goals, Policies, and Terms of Book Publishing.^[3]

Article 4 of the resolution of 2010 introduces 28 book topics that may cause spreading profligate and disturbance in public rights, and thus are prohibited. The topics can be categorized under three main subtopics and each subtopic includes at least eight sub themes. The regulation requires the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance fight back against these negative aspects of publishing books. As stated in the resolution, the following are some of the forbidden themes that must not appear in the contents of books.^[4]

Iranian publishers are required to obtain not only publishing licenses to establish a book publishing center, they should also apply for print and distribution permits from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for each book that they plan to publish. As stated in Article 3 of the Bylaw on Issuing a Book Print Permit (2005), the permits are valid for next reprints as long as no changes are made to the content and the publisher has not changed and/ or has not received any notification from the Ministry that require content modification.

According to Article 2 of the bylaw, in order to obtain a book permit, along with the file of the book, the publisher would fill out an application form called evaluation form and would include the book specifications (such as the title, author, translator, editor, circulation, number of pages, subject ) and submit them to the special office in the Ministry.

This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

In Iran, banned books are the books that are prohibited by the government (Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance) to be printed and distributed. Some books are rejected to receive print and distribution permits and some books receive notifications stating the deletions and alterations which are necessary to be applied to the content in order to receive the permits. In some cases, after distribution of the book, the permits are revoked for next editions. There are also cases in which a book does not receive permits in one period but the same book is permitted by the Ministry of Guidance in another period.^[5]

The following titles are some of the books that have either not received permits or whose permits have been revoked after some time. Some of the titles may have received permits later.