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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Keyhan Institute |
| Founder(s) | Abdolrahman Faramarzi Mostafa Mesbahzadeh |
| Editor | Hossein Shariatmadari |
| Founded | 27 May 1942; 83 years ago (1942) |
| Political alignment | Principlists |
| Headquarters | Ferdowsi Street,Tehran, Iran |
| OCLC number | 473890618 |
| Website | kayhan |
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Kayhan (Persian:کيهان,lit. 'The Cosmos') is aPersian-language newspaper published inTehran, Iran. It is considered "the mostconservative and hard-line Iranian newspaper."[1]Hossein Shariatmadari is theeditor-in-chief ofKayhan. According to the report of theNew York Times in 2007, his official position is representative of theSupreme Leader of Iran.[2]
Kayhan has about 1,000 employees worldwide.[2] There are conflicting reports about its circulation numbers: in 2006 theBBC gave it as 60,000–100,000 copies,[3] in 2007 theNew York Times gave "about 70,000", and in 2008 aNew York University School of Law journal article reported it as 350,000 copies.[4]Kayhan also publishes special foreign editions, which include the English-languageKayhan International.[1]
Kayhan was founded in February 1943[5] by ownerAbdolrahman Faramarzi andMostafa Mesbahzadeh aseditor-in-chief. Later the roles of Faramarzi and Mesbahzadeh were reversed. The paper supportedShah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi during his reign.[6] Published in Iran as well as in London, the newspaper had a circulation greater than one million prior to the1979 Islamic Revolution. In 1974 Kayhan media group introduced itself as "the largest newspaper and magazine publishing house in the Middle East". Forugh Mesbahzadeh, the wife ofKayhan's major owner, officially appeared as the manager of the leading Iranian women's magazine,Zan-e Rooz.[7]
During the clashes between the Imperial forces and revolutionaries,Kayhan andEttela'at were censored.[8] After the overthrow of the Shah all of Mesbahzadeh's assets were seized, including the publishing plant, which was the main headquarters of the daily. Following the revolutionKayhan became a state-sponsored publication together withEttela'at andJomhouri-e Eslami of which publishers are directly appointed by the Supreme Leader.[9]
In May 1980,Ayatollah Khomeini namedEbrahim Yazdi, then foreign minister, as head of the daily.[10] Under the guidance of Mesbahzadeh, the London office ofKayhan continued its work and publishes a monarchist weekly issue known asKayhan London, which has a small circulation. In 2006, Mesbahzadeh died at the age of 98 inLos Angeles, California.[1]
The paper focuses on political, cultural, social and economic news.[11]
The last editor of Kayhan newspaper wasAmir Taheri until the beginning of therevolution. With the approach of the 1979 revolution, a new editorial council was formed withinKayhan, headed byRahman Hatfi. From 1961 to 1966,Houshang Amiari was the director of the caricature department, overseeing themes of humorous paintings. Hossein Rezaei was the director of the news section of this newspaper from 1965 to 1979.[12]
Kayhan supports the Iranian government and the policies of former PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad. Shariatmadari stated that the newspaper and its staff "defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution."[13] Gareth Smyth, the former Iran correspondent of theFinancial Times, contends thatKayhan articulates the political views of the "regime's fundamentalist camp."[14]
Shariatmadari rejects the labels "conservative" and "fundamentalist," which he had said "...make us sound like theTaliban." Instead, he calls himself and those with similar views "principlists". The Principlist faction comprises the majority of theIranian Parliament.[2] This group is also referred to as the "neo-principlists" and includes such figures asGholamali Haddad Adel andSaeed Jalili among the others.[15] In fact, the daily is the print media outlet of the group.[15]
The newspaper became controversial in 2010 for iterating an unequivocal condemnation of then-French First LadyCarla Bruni for heropen letter about the death sentence againstSakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for adultery and alleged murder. The newspaper called Bruni an "Italian prostitute" and "the singer and decadent actress who managed to break [up] the Sarkozy family" who "deserves to die" for her "perverted lifestyle," reiterating the striking similarities between Ashtiani and Bruni, and also condemned actressIsabelle Adjani as a prostitute. The French foreign ministry condemned the comments as "unacceptable" and summoned the Iranian ambassador to France. The Iranian foreign ministry sought to distance itself fromKayhan's comments, with spokesmanRamin Mehmanparast stating that "The media can properly criticize the wrong and hostile policies of other countries by refraining from using insulting words. This is not correct."[16][17]
In 2020, following the expulsion ofMédecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Iran,Kayhan's editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, described the MSF as an "American puppet"[18] because it is "based in France and all anti-Iranian groups have a base in France.[19]On 28 April 2022, the same day asYom HaShoah,Kayhan published anopinion piece in the front page praisingAdolf Hitler and promoting anti-semitic tropes.[20]
After a Lebanese-American suspectstabbed the Indian-born authorSalman Rushdie on 12 August 2022,Kayhan responded by congratulating "a thousand bravos ... to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York... The hand of the man who tore the neck of God's enemy must be kissed".[21]
