Censorship in Iran

An interesting essay by Abbas Djavadi on rferl.org details forms of literary censorship in Iran, from the denial of publication of certain new works to the removal of old books from shelves to the excision and rewriting of precise offending phrases.

"Sometimes they reject the books and sometimes they refuse to publish specific passages, sentences, or even words," he continues. In a single history of Persian literature, they demanded 61 separate changes. One concerned a poem from the 11th century that was critical of men's beards. "They said the beard is something sacred and they can't approve anything making fun of it," the publisher says.

Djavadi also mentions two methods of circumventing these bawdlerizing efforts and censorial measures: publishing on the Internet and perusing the secret stashes of freethinking booksellers.