Censorship in Iran

From The Guardian: Girl with a Pearl Earring has been banned in Iran after six print runs. This and 'Dozens of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country's publishing industry into crisis ... under a cultural freeze instigated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.'

The report says that several thousand new and previously published works have been blacklisted by Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Newly banned books include Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code 'for upsetting clerics within Iran's tiny Christian community'. (What, not bad prose?) And William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Also banned are books featuring lyrics by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Black Sabbath, Queen and Guns n' Roses

Wasn't there a time when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to allow women to watch football games?



Full story:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1950280,00.html