with the regime’s Islamic view of what’s proper in society.
The Culture Ministry has blacked out such phrases as “holding hands,” “going somewhere where we can be alone” and “left nothing of the wine undrunk.”
With such changes, the 1177 love story is now deemed suitable for a 2011 audience.
Fariba Nabati is the cultural director of Peydayesh Publications, a firm that has long published the Khosrow and Shirin book. Recently, she said, the company decided to change the layout of the book and sent a copy of the new edition to the Culture Ministry, as required, for what she expected to be routine approval.
But instead, the censors poured over the manuscript, deleting words and phrases they viewed as un-Islamic from the epic poem.
The love story of Khosrow and Shirin was written by Nezami Ganjavi (1141-1209) in 1177 and published in 1180. That poem along with his other work on Layla and Majnun are uncontested as the greatest romantic poetry of Persian literature.
The story describes the love of Sassanian King Khosrow II for an Armenian princess, Shirin. It recounts King Khosrow’s courtship of Princess Shirin, and the vanquishing of his love-rival, Farhad, by exiling Farhad to Behistun mountain with the impossible task of carving stairs out of the cliff rocks. Shirin eventually consents to marry Khosrow after several romantic and heroic episodes, including Khosrow’s rescue of her from a lion by killing the animal with his bare hands.
Khosrow was a real figure in history and the basic story of his love for Shirin is described in many works, including the Shahnameh, that long predate Ganjavi’s work. But unlike the Shahnameh, which focuses on the history, kingship and battles of Khosrow, Nezami decided to focus on the romantic aspect of the story.
This censorship bug isn’t confined just to the Culture Ministry. Over at the Welfare Organization, the daily Aftab reports, the headman, Ahmad Esfandiari, has decreed that nurseries that have their children dance are immoral and acting against Islamic values. He said such nurseries would lose their licenses.