September 06, 2019
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi has long had a fondness for foreign literature, but a new official biography reveals a love for novels that are banned in the Islamic Republic, including those of a French novelist famous for his sex scenes.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic daily, the book about Khamenehi was originally published in Arabic as “Patience Leads to Victory,” but was later published in Farsi as “The Drop of Blood that Became a Ruby.”
In the book, Khamenehi is quoted as describing his “passion for reading Iranian and foreign novels,” and saying that reading novels had a “deep impact on him.”
A chapter of the book focuses on the books that Khamenehi enjoyed as a young man, including French authors such as Michel Zevaco and Alexandre Dumas.
Zevaco, who was at the top of Khamenehi’s reading list, was also known for being an anarchist, libertarian and militant, according to the Michel Zevaco International Center’s website.
Dumas is the French author of the 19th Century best-known for “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.” His works contain more adventure and less sex and violence than Zevaco’s novels.
Asharq Al-Awsat described Zevaco’s writings as a “universe of sex, violence, conspiracy and betrayal.”
In comments published on his official website from a gathering with children and teenagers in 1998, Khamenehi described as a child going to a library in Mashhad, where “I would indulge in reading. The call to prayer would be broadcast, but I was so immersed in reading that I would not hear it!”
Khamenehi said at the gathering, “There is a well-known French author called Michel Zevaco who has written many books. I have read most of his novels.”
Khamenehi also mentioned at the gathering that he read Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” a couple of times. In 1993, Khamenehi stated that Hugo was a “wise man” and that “‘Les Miserables’ is a book of wisdom and, in my opinion, everyone should read it,” according to his official website.
Khamenehi mentioned three Iranian novels he was especially fond of. Asharq al-Awsat pointed out that all three are on a list of books banned in 1999 under President Mohammad Khatami. They were banned because they “corrupt public morality and violate religious values.”
Those three novels include one by Ali Dashti that features a heroine named Fitneh (Sedition) who uses her charm to better her status in a world ruled by men, another featuring a heroine named Shahrashub (meaning the disturber of peace in the city) with an appetite for sex and “Ahu Khanum’s Husband” by Muhammad-Ali Afghani, which sparked a nationwide debate in Iran on the status of women, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
The books by French novelists that Khamenehi listed are also banned, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.