liberty central's civil liberties hero of the week: Margaret Atwood
Acclaimed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood has pulled out of a book festival in Dubai in protest at its refusal to launch a book featuring a gay relationship.
The Gulf Between Us, a romantic comedy by English writer Geraldine Bedell, was withdrawn after organisers claimed it would cause offence to local "cultural sensitivities". Bedell said: "Can you have a literary festival and ban books because they feature gay characters? Is that what being part of the contemporary literary scene means? The organisers claim to be looking for an exchange of ideas – but not, apparently, about sex or faith. That doesn't leave literature an awful lot of scope."
Atwood rightly agreed, notifying the festival that as the international vice president of PEN, an organisation that defends freedom of expression and protests against the censorship of writers, she was unable to participate.
Nominate your civil liberties hero of the week in the comments below.
UPDATE 23.02.09: The details of this story are now a little murkier, read the "Plot thickens in case of 'censored' author, gay sheikh and a Booker prize-winner" for an overview and click here to
see Margaret Atwood's thoughts on why a loose use of the terms "banned" and "censored" is not helpful.