While promoting their own art and literature, principalists are against the development of art and literature that has no "valuable content."[citation needed] In 1996, following a fatwa by Ali Khamenei stating that music education corrupts the minds of young children, many music schools were closed and music instruction to children under the age of 16 was banned by public establishments (although private instruction continued).[89][90] In 2010, Khamenei said that while music is permissible, it is not compatible with the values of the Islamic Republic, and promoted science and sport as alternatives to music.[91] Khamenei and his followers believe that "Nihilism and Beatle-ism" have ravaged Western youth.[92] According to the renowned novelist and the first president of Iranian Association of Writers after the revolution, Simin Daneshvar, Islamic Republic has been generally hostile toward Iranian writers and intellectuals.