Literature exchange: Joint efforts to expand linguistic and cultural activities
NLA and Farhangistani-Zaban-o-Adab Iran to come together for strengthening ties.
The two premiere language academies in Pakistan and Iran will collaborate to strengthen linguistic and cultural relations between the two countries. A press release issued here on Tuesday said National Language Authority (NLA) and Farhangistani-Zaban-o-Adab Iran (Academy of language and literature) will collaborate.
The two institutes agreed to collaborate in a meeting held on Monday between the Iran Cultural Counsellor Agha Ali Noori and NLA Chairperson Dr Anwar Ahmed here in Islamabad.
Both remained committed to take immediate steps in expanding linguistic, cultural and social activities. Both institutions will implement and exchange trainers as well as training packages in the form of books and audio visual products, said the press release. They will also conduct joint research projects and seminars on cultural and classical literature of Persian and Urdu languages.
Dr Anwar Ahmed said that revival of Persian language is vital in Pakistan to produce harmony in the society.
“The society was moderate three decades ago when Persian literature, particularly, Saadi, Roomi and Hafiz was being taught in schools,” he said.
Stressing to boost the cultural relations between societies, he said, “The scope of linguistic and cultural activities must be revived and prioritised to foster relations as we had in the past.”
During the meeting, Dr Ahmed asked the Iranian counsellor to get Farhangistan-e-Zaban o Adab to contribute bilingual dictionaries to NLA’s website to benefit students, teachers and scholars of Urdu.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2011.