BANNED FAMOUS BOOKS* : MANY DECADES

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE SHIRIN EBADI
AT MOLTE FEDI 2018

Bonn : What do Galilei, Harry Potter have in common? Books by or about them have been banned or challenged for diverse reasons.

.- Germany's Oscar nominee : All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is an unvarnished look at life on the German front during World War 1, as told by 20-year-old protagonist, Paul Baumer.

Seen by many critics as a key anti-war book, it was banned and burned under the Nazi regime in Germany.

.- A book about book burning

The 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 45I by Ray Bradbury tells of an American society of the future where books are outlawed and burnt if discovered.

The book has been challenged on the basis of ''questionable themes'' like censorship, repression and religion. It is often regarded as one of Bradbury's best works.

.- When animals shouldn't speak 

George Orwell's Animal Farm features a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where they can live as equals.

It was a swipe at corruption in the former Soviet Union, and was banned there until the 1980s. Schools in the United Arab Emirates also banned it in 2002 for depicting a talking pig.

.- 'Book that should not be read'

Despite the global acclaim and success that saw both children and adults devouring the entire Harry Potter series written by British author JK Rowling, the books have been targeted for removal from American school libraries as they dealt with ghosts, cult and witchcraft.

.- An anti-family children's book

And Tango makes Three is based on the true story of two male penguins in a New York Zoo who raise a chick together.

Pro-family organisations in the US called for its censorship for being ''anti-ethnic and anti family.'' In Singapore, where homosexuality is illegal. It was initially pulled from libraries.

.- Not banned in the US

Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita is about a middle-aged college professor who is obsessed with a twelve-year-old daughter whom he sexually exploits.

Unsurprisingly, it was banned as obscene over different periods in France, England, Argentina and New Zealand. Shockingly, it was not banned in the United States.

.- A Nobel Laureate will not be silenced

Lawyer Shirin Ebadi was one of Iran's first female judges. After the 1979 revolution, she was dismissed from her position.

Ebadi opened a legal practice and began defending people who were being persecuted by the authorities. 

Despite being the first female peace prize laureate from the Islamic world, her memoir Iran Awakening is banned in her native country.

.- Enforcing racial stereotypes

Despite being acknowledged as one of the best American novels ever written, Mark Twain's 1884 novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is frequently challenged in the US over its depiction of racial stereotypes.

The N-word is used 242 times in the novel, leading one administrator to brand it the ''most grotesque example of racism I've ever seen in my life.''

The World Students Society thanks DW.