President in message to conference: Culture, art rare phenomena elevating human mind

TEHRAN – President Mohammad Khatami in a message to the international conference on scripts here Monday pointed to culture and arts as rare phenomena which not only varnish the human soul and body, but elevate man’s mind and thought.

The president’s message was fully read at the conference held in Tehran Carpet Museum by the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ahmad Masjed-Jamei, IRNA reported.
In his message, the chief executive thanked the Almighty God for the honor granted to him for spending the last days of his presidential term in a country whose, educated people are highly interested in culture.
The president welcomed the presence of Iranian artists, scholars, researchers and calligraphers specialized in scripts and hoped that the ongoing conference will continue successfully so that the global culture would benefit from the out come of such seminars to consolidate intercultural and inter-civilizational ex-changes.
In his address to the conference, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance underlined the crucial role of scripts and hand¬writings in expansion of intercultural relations among various ethnic communities and nations.
He referred to common scripts as effective tools for establishment of unity among individuals and groups.
Turning to the application of scripts among various groups and na¬tions since old days, the minister said that once handwriting was invented, the individual memory subject to oblivion was replaced by sus¬tainable recording and thus the knowledge of one generation could be passed on to the next one.
“Religion plays a crucial role in promoting art and in some communities, particularly in the Iranian and Islamic ones, divine verses and scripts have been intermingled in a marvelous way.
“Culture is a phenomenon which disseminates and leaves its impact on others, given that man is subject to being influenced by culture. Besides, cultural communica¬tion have long been common among various ethnic communities and nations,” he concluded.
The international conference on scripts opened at Tehran Carpet Museum on Monday will continue up to Wednesday.