Den britiske forfatterinnen Geraldine Bedell var invitert til å delta på den første litteraturfestivalen i Dubai. Men det var før de fant ut av en av bipersonene i hennes roman var homofil.
Boken med den talende tittel “The Gulf between us”, skulle vært presentert på litteraturfestivalen som åpner 26. februar. Men i boken er det en homoseksuell sheik som har en engelsk mannlig venn. Det ble for mye for arrangørene. De ville ikke ha skandale. Tenk om noen skulle finne på å lese boken og finne ut at en av figurene var homofil. Eller var det det at handlingen utspiller seg i Golf rett før Irak-krigen, og at den homofile er muslim?
The director of the festival, Isobel Abulhoul, wrote to Bedell and told her: “I do not want our festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book.
“If we launched the book and a journalist happened to read it, then you could imagine the political fallout that would follow. This could be a minefield.”
Bedell, who lived in the Middle East, described the sheikh as only a minor character in her book.
“You can’t ban books and expect your literary festival to be taken seriously,” she said.
The first International Festival of Literature in Dubai starts on February 26 and features authors including Kate Adie, Anthony Horowitz, Jamil Qureshi, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
It describes itself as: “The first true literary Festival in the Middle East celebrating the world of books in all its infinite variety.”
The Gulf Between Us, published by Penguin, tells the story of a single mother trying to raise three boys in the Gulf emirate of Hawar in the summer of 2002, shortly before the invasion of Iraq.
British author Geraldine Bedell banned from Dubai book festival
British author Geraldine Bedell has been banned from a book festival in Dubai because one of the characters in her new book is gay