TEHRAN -- The inscription of a commendation of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for “The Girls of the Sun”, a novel about social issues affecting women, was unveiled seven years after its writing during a ceremony on Tuesday.

“Among the fiction that aims to bring up intellectual issues, this is the best book by an Iranian writer,” the Leader wrote.

“The plot and the motifs of the book are good and sweet,” he added.

However, the Leader criticized the book for its final chapter, in which the character of the protagonist is disclosed.

“The Girls of the Sun” coauthored by Amir-Hossein Banki, Behzad Daneshgar and Mohammadreza Rezayatmand was published by Sorush Publication in 2008.

The book has been republished ten times since then.

The unveiling ceremony held at Tehran’s Girls’ Shohada-ye Haftom-e Tir High School was attended by Academy of Persian Language and Literature Director Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel and a number of cultural figures.

He asked Iranian cultural officials to increase publication of the commendations that the Leader has written for various books.

He said that the Islamic Revolution Publications affiliated with the Institute for Preserving and Publishing Works by Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei plans to publish the commendations on a regular basis.

The leader has previously written commendations for other books, including “Thirsty Windows”, writer Mehdi Qezeli’s diary on his trip to Karbala during November and December 2012 when he accompanied a caravan transferring the new zarih (outer sarcophagus enclosure) of the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS) from Iran to the Iraqi city.

Also among the books are “The Division of the Good”, which is a 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war memoir by Iranian veteran Mehdi Qoli-Rezaii, and “I’m Alive”, which is the memoirs of Masumeh Abad during her long captivity in Iraq during the 1980s.

“Those 23 Individuals”, the memoirs of Ahmad Yusefzadeh during his long captivity in Iraq in the 1980s, also received commendations from the Leader.

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