The Guardian | Saeed Kamali Dehghan:�It was almost winter and Bear was getting sleepy,� the Iranian cleric reads aloud. He has taken off his clerical robe, put aside his white turban and is trying to entertain a group of children in one of Iran�s poorest villages.

In between phrases, he troops back and forth to make sure everyone is listening. �Are you with me?� he asks. �What did Bear want to do?� The children, who are painting their school walls, reply: �Bear had a story to tell.�

It�s all in a day�s work for Esmail Azarinejad, a father of two who is not your average cleric. Iranian theocrats are better known for delivering inflammatory remarks at Friday prayers or fulminating on television against a backdrop of��Death to America� chants.

Azarinejad, 39, sees his mission somewhat differently. When he�s not teaching Islamic philosophy or Arabic literature at his city�s seminary, he travels to villages in the impoverished south-west of�Iran, distributing books from the boot of his old Peugeot and reading passages from books such as Bear Has a Story to Tell by the American author Philip C Stead.

 

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