Iran - what a lovely place it is

Iran Bans Da Vinci Code

Bestsellers and literary classics on Iran's Index Librorum Prohibitorum

Iran's extremist cultural ministry has announced a crackdown on publishing, banning a list of classic works as well as modern foreign and Iranian novels in an attempt to end what it describes as a "poisoned dish to the young generation."

Along with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Tracy Chevalier's best-seller Girl With a Pearl Earring and books of lyrics by bands like The Beatles, Queen and The Rolling Stones will be prohibited. Contemporary Iranian writers, some of whom are feted outside Iran, will no longer be published in their home country, while pre-revolutionary novels will also be banned.

The Guardian quotes the culture minister Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi - a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"We have complaints against those who see books as only a market and are acting as assistants for evil... Sometimes the humiliation of Iranian youth is implied or suggested in the books. Sometimes the media transmits the concept that we Muslims and easterners lack proper means and, therefore, we should stretch our hands towards others."

Culture ministry spokesmen complain that under the rule of Ahmadinejad's reforming predecessor Mohammed Khatami, the Islamist regime relaxed its grip too much, creating "a climate encouraging immoral behaviour, sex before marriage, mockery of religious traditions and secularism."