Feyli youth turns hardship into hope with community library

Shafaq News – Ilam

Defying physical disability and limited means, a young man from Feyli Ilam Province, western Iran, has built a community library that has become a symbol of perseverance and hope in his hometown.

According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, 28-year-old Iman Ahmadi from the village of Rostam Khan established a public library containing more than 2,000 books, transforming part of his mother’s small tailoring shop into a space open to all. His initiative reflects a conscious choice to reject isolation and dependence on government employment in favor of community service.

The library urgently needs financial support to expand its services, Ahmadi said estimating that essential furniture and equipment would cost around 50 million tomans (about $1,000).

Roughly half of the collection was donated by the Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents in Ilam, with Ahmadi covering the remaining costs himself.

Despite scarce resources, the “Rostam Khan Library” now serves as a daily meeting place for local children and youth. He has also proposed creating a “toy library” to help develop children’s cognitive skills, a project still awaiting official approval.

Ilam has produced several other inspiring figures with disabilities in recent years, including Paralympic shot put champion Ali Akbar Mohammadi, social entrepreneur Saeed Karami, who provides jobs for people with special needs, and visual artist Maryam Rostami, whose nature-inspired works have featured in national and international exhibitions.