Late Quranic Author Commemorated

--A memorial ceremony was held Saturday morning at the Iranian Quran news agency (IQNA) to commemorate the late Iranian children story writer, Mehdi Azar-Yazdi who passed away two days ago at the age of 87.

The function was attended by religious, art and cultural figures including Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, who currently heads Parliament (Majlis) Cultural Commission.

In a brief addressing Saffar-Harandi praised Azar-Yazdi's personality and works saying that Azar-Yazdi was a successful writer whose works were frequently reprintd.

"I recently visited him at his deathbed. His main concern was how his works were going to be reprinted in a new style so as to attract more children. He insisted that they must be reedited and simplified in a way that they become more interesting to children,” Saffar-Harandi added.

Azar-Yazdi, who started to rewrite classical Persian stories and stories from the holy Quran in 1956, became internationally famous for his award wining "Good Stories for Good Children", which won a UNESCO award in 1966.

After the ceremony at IQNA, a funeral procession was held from IQNA headquarters up to the main entrance of the University of Tehran.

Azar-Yazdi's body will be sent to his hometown of Yazd, 378 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, to be laid to rest.

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