By Aryaman Ahmadi, journalist and writer

IranWire

Why is Animal Farm the most popular and best-selling foreign novel in Iran, translated into Persian 164 times?

Perhaps Iranian readers find this allegorical short novel fascinating because it mirrors recent Iranian history so closely that, upon finishing it, they exclaim: “This is the story of today’s Iran!”

The "Iran of today" that readers see in Animal Farm has been etched into people's minds with "terrifying clarity" since the 1953 coup d'état, the revolution against elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, and repeated cycles of repression. Animal Farm is an allegory of revolutionary idealism devolving into tyranny—a trajectory that directly corresponds to Iran’s 1979 revolution. By reading the book, Iranians often see their nation's fate reflected in the "farm" with unsettling accuracy.

This grim parallel became even clearer from the 1990s onward, reaching new heights during protests in 2009, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Protesters adopted metaphors from the book as slogans to challenge the government’s legitimacy, illustrating the deep impact of the book on Iranian political culture. One iconic slogan, for example, was: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

A Universal Language for Describing Modern Dictatorships

Published in 1945, Animal Farm was followed by George Orwell’s other dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949. Since its release, Animal Farm has been celebrated as one of the most significant works of literature worldwide. Christopher Hitchens, the renowned British American author and journalist, praised Orwell as one of the 20th century’s most significant critics of dictatorship. Hitchens viewed Animal Farm not merely as a critique of the Russian October Revolution or Stalin’s regime but as an overarching condemnation of all totalitarian systems. He argued that Orwell’s message remains timeless, serving as a powerful warning about humanity's future under modern dictatorships.

Isaiah Berlin, a Russian British philosopher, argued that Orwell created a universal language for describing modern dictatorships. By contrasting “positive liberty” (“liberty to”) and “negative liberty” (“liberty from”), Berlin emphasized Orwell’s ability to expose the gap between governmental ideologies and social realities.

Thomas Sowell, an African American economist and social philosopher who received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002, called Animal Farm a masterpiece of literary historiography that reveals how political power can lead to corruption and betrayal. Sowell highlighted how Orwell exposed the harsh reality of revolutions, which often replace old regimes with ones that are equally, if not more, oppressive.

Phillip Adams, an Australian humanist and social commentator also highlighted the social and political influence of Animal Farm. Philip Adams was elected by a National Trust of Australia as Australia's “100 national living treasures” and has a small planet between Mars and Jupiter named after him in 1997 by the International Astronomical Union. He lauded the book for revealing painful truths about power’s corrupting nature. As a former member of the Australian Communist Party, Adams also emphasized that Animal Farm remains one of the most influential critiques of society in literary history.

From Freedom Fighters to Oppressors

Victor Serge, a Russian Marxist revolutionary, writer, poet, and critic of Stalinism, believed Animal Farm encapsulates a painful truth: revolutionaries who enter politics seeking justice and freedom often become oppressors themselves. Serge’s personal experience with the 1917 Russian Revolution resonated deeply with Orwell’s depiction in Animal Farm. Serge’s novels have been described as “an alloy of George Orwell and Franz Kafka,” and his work, such as The Case of Comrade Tulayev, has been hailed as one of the greatest 20th-century Russian novels.

Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, compared his work to Orwell’s, noting their shared critique of despotism. However, Huxley argued that while Orwell focused on violent suppression in Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World depicted control through consumerism and hedonism. Together, these works explore two sides of totalitarianism.

Iranian author Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, known for his saga Kelidar, remarked: “The Animal Farm was translated into Persian long before the revolution and the book’s subject filled me with foreboding even before I read it. Isn’t it interesting that such a characteristic makes literature more popular?” Some of Dowlatabadi’s novels including the Colonel, have been banned by the Islamic republic. 

Fighting Headwinds

Animal Farm faced obstacles from the start. Written between November 1943 and February 1944, the manuscript was initially rejected by several publishers in the UK and US, whose governments were allied with the Soviet Union during World War II. Despite these challenges, the book became a commercial success after its 1945 release. Predictably, it was banned in the Soviet Union and other totalitarian states but eventually found its way to readers.

The first Persian translation, titled Animal Castle by Amir Amirshahi, was published in 1969. It was quickly tagged as a political manifesto by various groups in Iran. Orwell’s reputation as “the conscience of a generation” added to the book’s appeal, making him a role model for those defending ideals of freedom and justice. In undemocratic societies, literature remains one of the few safe avenues for political expression which can lighten the burden of living in such societies.

164 Translations

Animal Farm’s popularity soared during the bloody decade of 1980s in Iran. The number of translations exploded, driven by both political and commercial motivations, reaching a staggering 164. This set a global record for translations of a single work. Of these, 102 were produced in Tehran, 30 in the holy city of Qom, 7 in Mashhad and Tabriz, 3 in Sari and the rest spread across various cities like Isfahan, Karaj, Amol, Gorgan, Qazvin, Shiraz, Saveh, Bojnurd, Kashan, Dezful and Kermanshah.

Interestingly, the “Mullah town” Qom, known as the center of Iran’s theocracy, produced the second-highest number of translations. This phenomenon highlights the conflict between the cultural power of literature and political censorship, a theme central to Animal Farm itself.

“External” and “Internal Power”

Mostafa Mehraeen, a prominent sociologist whose statements after the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement and the 2024 presidential election gained widespread acclaim, believes that longevity of a literary work depends on its “external” supporters or its “internal” strength. Examining George Orwell’s works through this lens, he notes: “According to the first perspective, a literary work endures because the ruling authority supports it, believes that it aligns with their own ideology and promotes it to strengthen their power. Clearly, this this does not apply to George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, which are fundamentally at odds with the ideology of the Islamic Republic.

Yet paradoxically, this argument can also hold true. The Islamic Republic perceives itself as the sole legitimate revolutionary government, asserting that it has neither devolved into tyranny like the regime depicted in Animal Farm nor relies on propaganda, deceit, and suppression of dissent for its survival. Thus, it is not entirely surprising to suggest that governmental endorsement has played a role in the proliferation of translations of these two works.”

Aside from political factors influencing the popularity of Orwell’s works in Iran, financial motivations also play a role, says Mostafa Mehraeen. “As Robert Darnton, the esteemed American historian of 18th-century France, has shown, the Enlightenment revolution wasn’t just driven by the works of philosophers and thinkers—it was also fueled by the financial rewards of publishing these books,” he explains. Darnton demonstrated how Diderot’s Encyclopédie and other Enlightenment writings became highly profitable commodities in France and across Europe. So much so that even opponents of the Enlightenment, like the Church and government, entered the market to print and sell these works.

Similarly, Mehraeen points to the financial potential of translating and publishing Orwell’s works in Iran. “Take Kaveh Mir-Abbasi’s translation of Nineteen Eighty-Four, which sells over 100,000 tomans and has been reprinted 32 times. This demonstrates its immense financial value. The same is true for other translations of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm,” he says.

Mehraeen argues that if the survival of Orwell’s books in Iran and their enduring popularity is due to their “internal” logic. “We must show how the depiction of the world in these works mirrors the literary expression of our social life, portraying the psyche of oppressed individuals. Orwell’s ideology exposes tyranny and offers hope by suggesting an alternative,” he notes.

“These two works, in a sense, tell the story of our society over the past forty years,” Mehraeen continues. “But they go further. As Milan Kundera would say, they explore our ‘ability to understand humans.’ They reveal how much we, as humans, are capable of destroying ourselves and our society, and the extent of the calamities we can create. Literature, alongside history, is the only space where humanity, with all its paradoxes, is recorded. Orwell’s value lies in capturing humanity’s inhumane and immoral potentials, reminding us of our need for humility, love, and sensitivity toward one another.”

Drawing on Theodor Adorno’s critique of Hegel, Mehraeen adds, “Adorno argued that Hegel’s dialectics prevent reason from realizing that it isn’t always loyal to itself. Similarly, Orwell shows us that humans aren’t always humane and often fail to remain loyal to humanity.”

New Meaning for a New Generation

Orwell himself believed each generation would find new meaning in Animal Farm. Since its 1945 publication, the book has crossed borders and linguistic barriers, but perhaps nowhere else has it been as widely translated or read as in Iran. In his 1947 introduction to the Ukrainian edition, Orwell explained that he wanted to use simple language to show ordinary Britons, who had long enjoyed freedom, the realities of totalitarian regimes.

Orwell’s experience fighting for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s shaped his understanding of totalitarian propaganda. He observed how such regimes could manipulate even intellectuals in democratic societies. Through Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell combined his political and artistic goals, illustrating how propaganda underpins totalitarian regimes and warning democratic societies of the need to defend themselves against such dangers.

According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.

Its central character, Napoleon, is a boar whose pathological thirst for power dehumanizes him, making the other animals appear more humane by contrast. Orwell modeled Napoleon on dictators like Hitler and Stalin, blending their traits to illustrate the workings of modern dictatorship. In his review of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Orwell remarked, “All three of the great dictators—Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their people.”

Unsurprisingly, Animal Farm was banned in the Soviet Union and its satellite states. In 1977, it was even excluded from the International Book Fair in Moscow by its British publisher. Despite these bans, the book found an underground readership in Eastern Europe and continued to sell illegally until the fall of the Soviet Union. It remains banned in Cuba and North Korea. In China, Animal Farm is available but heavily censored online since 2018.

Despite censorship, Animal Farm’s influence remains undiminished 80 years after its publication. For Iranians, the book has moved beyond allegory to become a faithful recounting of their struggles under tyranny. Generations born after Iran’s 1979 revolution see their own lives reflected in Orwell’s tale and continue to resist the Islamic Republic’s propaganda in their quest for dignity and a normal life.

The divide between the Iranian people and their government began with protests against forced hijab shortly after the revolution. Over the years, it widened with each nationwide uprising, culminating in the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. The brutal suppression of this movement made the gap between reality and government propaganda undeniable. For Iranians, Animal Farm encapsulates their enduring fight against oppression, giving voice to their collective suffering and their hopes for a better future.