Horses made of roots
The book ban angered and worried many Palestinians, who long feared that Hamas
would use its victory in last year's parliamentary election to remake the
Palestinian territories according to its hardline interpretation of Islam.
West Bank novelist Zakariya Mohammed said he feared Hamas' decision to ban
"Speak Bird, Speak Again," a collection of 45 folk tales, was only the
beginning and urged intellectuals to take action. "If we don't stand up to the
Islamists now, they won't stop confiscating books, songs and folklore," he
said.
The Education Ministry declined immediate comment. A senior ministry official,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the
issue with reporters, confirmed that 1,500 copies of the book had been pulled
from school libraries and destroyed.
Hanan Ashrawi, an independent lawmaker and former Cabinet minister, said the
decision to pull the book was "outrageous."
"If this is what is to come, it is extremely alarming," she said.
With Hamas slated to retain the Education Ministry under a power-sharing
agreement with the secular Fatah party, Ashrawi called for the creation of an
independent body to deal with issues related to arts and education.
"Education and culture and social issues should not be handled by anybody that
has a closed, ideological, doctrinal attitude," she said. "It should be in the
hands of professionals."
Since taking office last year, Hamas, which advocates an Islamic Palestinian
state, has largely shied away from trying to force its mores on Palestinian
society, as rights activists had feared. Some analysts speculated that the
group was too busy trying to fend off international sanctions and keep its
government from collapsing to focus on banning alcohol or other measures.
However, in recent months the Hamas-controlled ministries have begun forcing
women to don headscarves to enter. And two years ago, Hamas officials in charge
of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya sparked fears of a culture crackdown by
banning a local music festival, arguing that the mingling of men and women at
such an event was "haram," or forbidden by Islam.
In a letter sent to the Nablus school district last month, the Education
Ministry said "Speak Bird, Speak Again" must be removed within a week, and
asked school officials to notify the ministry once they had complied. The
letter did not explain why the book was considered objectionable. Excerpts of
the letter were read to The Associated Press by a Nablus school official who
spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution.
Palestinian folklore
The 400-page anthology of folk tales narrated by Palestinian women was first
published in English in 1989 by the University of California at Berkeley. It
was put together by Sharif Kanaana, a novelist and anthropology professor at
the West Bank's Bir Zeit University, and by Ibrahim Muhawi, a teacher of Arabic
literature and the theory of translation, the AP reports.
A French version, published by UNESCO, followed in 1997, and an Arabic one in
2001, said Kaanana, who lives in the West Bank town of Ramallah. At the time of
the first publication in Arabic, the Palestinian Culture Ministry requested
3,000 copies and had them distributed in schools, Kanaana said Monday.
Kanaana said that two of the 45 tales contained what some might consider vague
sexual innuendo, referring to body parts in colloquial Arabic. "This is our
heritage, this is our life," he said of the folk tales.
One of Kanaana's neighbors, pharmacist Nabil Nahas, 60, said the book was a
treasure, and that he was deeply upset by what he said was Hamas' attempt to
silence other opinions.
The author said the stories shouldn't be altered because this is how they were
transmitted from generation to generation. He didn't mind having a revised
version for young children, but the original should be freely available, as a
historic record, he said.
"It's not their right to judge this book," Kanaana said. "It's a scientific,
academic book."
