Cairo, May 05: The head of the writers’ union in Egypt hit back on Wednesday against Islamists seeking to ban “Arabian Nights,” saying it would file a legal complaint against them for “their stance against heritage.”
A group of Islamist lawyers had filed a complaint to the public prosecutor against the publication of the classic “One Thousand and One Nights,” known in English as “Arabian Nights,” because they said it was lewd.
“Those who want to destroy our heritage are taking the same path as the Taliban when they destroyed Buddha’s statutes,” Mohammed Salmawy said, promising to file a counter complaint.
“We will file a complaint, and it is time that we move from a defensive position to attack.”
First published in mediaeval times, the collection of tales including “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” is told by Sheherazade to put off her execution by a king who wants to bed his country’s virgins before executing them.
The new edition of the Arabic-language classic was published by the government-run General Agency for Cultural Palaces, which has drawn criticism in the past over works it has published.
In 2003, the head of the organisation was sacked by Culture Minister Faruq Hosni after it published three novels Islamists described as obscene.
In their complaint against “Arabian Nights,” an Islamist group of lawyers calling themselves Lawyers Without Borders catalogued references to sex, which they said “called to vice and sin.”
—Agencies