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British author Geraldine Bedell has been banned from a book festival in Dubai because one of the characters in her new book is gay.
By Caroline Gammell telegraph.co.uk, 16/2/2008
The novelist, whose book The Gulf Between Us is set in the Middle East, was initially welcomed to the event by the organisers.
But when they realised the novel featured a homosexual sheikh who had an English boyfriend and was set in the backdrop to the Iraq war, the book was withdrawn.
The director of the festival, Isobel Abulhoul, wrote to Bedell and told her: "I do not want our festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book.
"If we launched the book and a journalist happened to read it, then you could imagine the political fallout that would follow. This could be a minefield."
Bedell, who lived in the Middle East, described the sheikh as only a minor character in her book.
"You can't ban books and expect your literary festival to be taken seriously," she said.
The first International Festival of Literature in Dubai starts on February 26 and features authors including Kate Adie, Anthony Horowitz, Jamil Qureshi, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
It describes itself as: "The first true literary Festival in the Middle East celebrating the world of books in all its infinite variety."
The Gulf Between Us, published by Penguin, tells the story of a single mother trying to raise three boys in the Gulf emirate of Hawar in the summer of 2002, shortly before the invasion of Iraq.
British author Geraldine Bedell has been banned from a book festival in Dubai because one of the characters in her new book is gay.
By Caroline Gammell telegraph.co.uk, 16/2/2008
The novelist, whose book The Gulf Between Us is set in the Middle East, was initially welcomed to the event by the organisers.
But when they realised the novel featured a homosexual sheikh who had an English boyfriend and was set in the backdrop to the Iraq war, the book was withdrawn.
The director of the festival, Isobel Abulhoul, wrote to Bedell and told her: "I do not want our festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book.
"If we launched the book and a journalist happened to read it, then you could imagine the political fallout that would follow. This could be a minefield."
Bedell, who lived in the Middle East, described the sheikh as only a minor character in her book.
"You can't ban books and expect your literary festival to be taken seriously," she said.
The first International Festival of Literature in Dubai starts on February 26 and features authors including Kate Adie, Anthony Horowitz, Jamil Qureshi, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
It describes itself as: "The first true literary Festival in the Middle East celebrating the world of books in all its infinite variety."
The Gulf Between Us, published by Penguin, tells the story of a single mother trying to raise three boys in the Gulf emirate of Hawar in the summer of 2002, shortly before the invasion of Iraq.
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