Da Vinci Code banned in Iran

We wrote last week of the troubles being experienced by Mr Rais, the 'bookseller of Kabul' and his family, from the ongoing fallout from Asne Seierstad's book. We have no idea of what books are on offer in his shop, but bet that post-liberation, it included Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Freedom in the new millennium can always be measured by the availability of Western culture. Which is not now going to be the experience for booksellers in Tehran. The Iranian Ministry of Culture has banned all re-publication of TDVC at the request of Iran's Christian clerics. The movie adaptation has already been banned and the book will be effectively unavailable once the current print run has been sold. Is this not pretty half-hearted when you think about it? We wonder who they are trying to appease – or annoy. Of course, stories of book-banning and repression are all part of the War on Terror. We can only imagine how the news from Dade County, Miami is playing in Afghanistan: a local school board banned a children's book for being overly positive in its depiction of life in Cuba. Parents at the school felt there were errors of omission and unfairly flattering details of life under Castro in the story. The involvement of the Floridian branch of the ACLU led to the return of the book to the school shelves, after they reminded the board of the existence of the First Amendment. Dade County has always had issues with the Freedom of Speech, having banned a rap record by 2 Live Crew in 1990, spawning a national debate.