[IRANIAN SATIRE] Gol-Agha: Satirical weekly. [Lot of 124 issues].

KIOUMARS SABERI FOUMANI, (Owner of 'Gol Agha', Iranian satirist), (1941-2004), Gol-Agha, Tehran, (the 1990s).

Original wrappers. Folio. (33 x 25 cm) and some different sizes. In Persian with bilingual titles in English and Persian. A lot including 124 issues, published between July 30, 1991, to 1999.

A lot including 124 issues of this rare Iranian satyric magazine "Gol Agha", which was the first such publication in post-revolutionary Iran, maintaining its dominance for more than two decades after its debut, adding monthly and annual editions as well as producing new generation of satirists and cartoonists.

Kioumars Saberi Foumani, (1941-2004), also known by his pen name Gol-Agha, was an Iranian satirist, writer, and teacher. Saberi was born during the Second World War in Souma'eh Sara a city in Gilan Province. His father, originally from Rasht, worked for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance. He was transferred to Souma'eh Sara in 1938 and then to Fuman in 1942 where he died a few months later. His mother, who was the daughter of a respected cleric and one of the few educated women in the city, taught the Quran after the death of her husband. His brother, who was 14 years older, had to leave school at the age of 15 to work to help with the family expenses. Education for Saberi was hard because of his family's poverty and he had to start working in a tailor shop after finishing his elementary education. He also worked in his brother's bicycle repair shop during elementary school and high school. He started high school education at his mother's insistence. At the age of 16, he gained entry to Sari's Agriculture teacher's college which only accepted one student from Fuman each year. He continued his college education and graduated in 1959. He worked as a teacher from 1959-1961. At the age of 20, he took his high school exams and received his high school diploma. He continued his education at the University of Tehran while working as a teacher. He achieved his bachelor of science degree in political science in 1965. He spent most of the 1970s reading and teaching and in 1978 he obtained his master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Tehran. Saberi got married in 1966 and he had a daughter and a son. His son died in a car accident in 1985 but this sad incident did not stop him from reaching his goal, which was to make people smile. Kioumars Saberi Foumani died on April 30, 2004. During his first year at university, Saberi was arrested for participating in student demonstrations and started to write political satire in Towfigh magazine. Towfigh magazine was Iran's most respected pro-democracy political satire magazine, with the highest circulation in Iranian history. Its editor-in-chief was Hossein Towfigh who, along with his brothers Hassan and Abbas, turned Towfigh magazine into the most influential journal in Iranian history. Saberi became one of the many staff writers of Towfigh magazine. After the Iranian Revolution, he became the cultural advisor for Mohammad Ali Rajai. One of his other political posts was as the counselor to the minister of Housing and Urban Development of Iran. Following the Revolution, Saberi worked in different political positions before deciding to leave politics. He was in charge of Roshde-Adabe-Farsi magazine and sometimes he wrote for the Ettelaat newspaper. He started a column called "Do-Kalame-Harfe-Hesab" in Ettelaat in 1984 which was a starting point for political satires after the revolution. He continued writing for this column for six years until he started his own magazine called Gol-Agha in 1990. His courageous and powerful writings were appreciated by many famous authors such as Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh. Saberi received first prize in the press exhibitions of 1992 and 1994 and second prize in 1993. He stopped writing for Ettelaat in 1993. The main characters in his writings are Gol-Agha, Shagholam, Mamasadegh, Kamineh, The wife of Mamasadegh), Mash-Rajab, and Ghazanfar. In 2003 in his last editorial in Gol-Agha, Saberi announced that publishing Gol-Agha will be stopped without providing any reasons, explicitly. He wrote that he has been thinking most of his time for the last three months, and tried to write this announcement many times. (Wikipedia).