TEHRAN -- The winners of the Lady of Culture Festival were announced here on Sunday.

In a ceremony held at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad- Hossein Saffar Harandi, his advisor in women’s affairs Samira Aslanpur and the historian Musa Haqqani made short speeches.
Minister Saffar Harandi stated that since the Islamic Revolution, the number of female students at universities has increased and women have played a more active role in society.
He also noted that women are responsible for the development of a country’s culture, and thus any enhancement in their status will go hand in hand with an improvement in people’s way of life.
Aslanpur also made a short speech and announced that the next festival will be augmented by two new sections -- women’s illustrations and women’s publications.
Afterwards the awards were presented. In the adults’ story section, first prize went to the author Maryam Ruzbahaneh for her book “Raspberries Which Don’t Travel” and second prize went to Shamsi Khosravi for the work “Half an Orange”.
In the adults’ poetry section, Mojgan Abbaslu won first prize for her collection “Similar to Your Lovely Songs” and Qorban Valiei won second prize for “The Prophet David’s Melody of Silence”.
In the biography section, Nafiseh Nazari won first prize for “One Minute of Silence” and Narges Abyar won the second prize for “It Was Neither Day Nor Night”.
In the literary research section, first prize went to Parvin Salajaqeh for the book “From This Oriental Garden” and Maryam Moshref for “Literary Styles of Critics” won second prize.
In the young adults’ poetry section, Shokuh Qasemnia won first prize for “Snow and Spring” and Saeid Hashemi won second prize for “Spring in a Bowl.”
In the young adults’ story section, first prize went to Atusa Salehi for “Like Everyone but Like Nobody”, and Mehdi Mirkiaii won the jury’s special prize for “Carpet and Canary”.
The special award went to one of the jury members of the poetry section Simindokht Vahidi.
Razeih Tojjar, Zarifeh Ruiin, Ahmad Shakeri and Kamran Parsinejad were among the jury members.