Tehran, Nov 27: Iran's conservative cultural body
has banned a female writer's award-winning bestseller, which
deals with a married woman's secret and unrequited love for
another man, a press report said on Monday.
"The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has
prohibited publication of 'I will turn out the lights' by Zoya
Pirzad," the Kargozaran paper quoted publisher Alireza
Ramezani as saying.
"We have not been informed of the reasons for the ban,"
he said, adding the vetting officials had refused to renew the
publication permit for the book, which has sold more than
200,000 copies in 23 editions since 2001.
Pirzad's novel, which has bagged four prestigious
literary awards in Iran, tells the story of a bored Armenian
housewife who falls in love with a melancholic widower in
early 1960s in the oil-city of Abadan.
Production of music, films and books is subject to
supervision by the Ministry of Culture, which has introduced
a new initiative requiring publishers to renew permits for
new editions of the same book.
The Ministry has held up the publication of hundreds of
new titles and reprints over the past months, publishers say.
Among the books banned are Persian translations of Tracy
Chevalier's bestseller "girl with a pearl earring", which had
reached a sixth edition, and Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code".
Widely-acclaimed Iranian classic, the "Blind Owl",
written in 1930s by Sadegh Hedayat has also been banned.
Iranian press and publication enjoyed some freedom under
the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to
2005, with scores of women joining the Iranian literati and
sweeping awards.
Bureau Report
