Slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s jail diary sells like hot cakes in this year’s Kashmir book festival
A book festival in Srinagar is seeing high demand for the jail diary of the late Iranian Supreme Leader, following recent geopolitical tensions. The interest spans across different religious communities, reflecting a desire to understand the ideological foundations of modern Iran.
Why it matters
The popularity of this literature in Kashmir highlights how regional geopolitical conflicts influence local intellectual curiosity and cultural consumption.
As a spin-off of the ongoing war between Iran and the U.S., slain Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s jail diary is selling like hot cakes at the book festival in Srinagar.
Buyers are jostling at the stall set up by the Mutahhari Fikri Wa Saqafati Markaz at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) on the banks of the Dal Lake, with peak footfall of 20,000 visitors a day. Many local Shia clerics are recording videos on buying these books for social media platforms.
The front desk of the stall pavilion has stacks of books authored by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Iranian revolution, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, who was killed in a joint attack of the Israel and the U.S. on February 28 this year.
Read | Escalation trap: On the U.S. and the war with Iran
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