Cairo: Hundreds of years after the fantasy collection of Arabian tales first appeared, a group of Egyptian lawyers is branding it as immoral and pushing to have it banned or at least expurgated.
"When I recently bought One Thousand and One Nights, published by the state-run Authority of Cultural Centres, I was shocked at the offensive phrases it contains," said Ayman Abdul Hakim, a lawyer belonging to Lawyers without Shackles, a non-governmental group that has lodged a complaint with Egypt's Chief Prosecutor demanding a ban on the book.
Known in English as The Arabian Nights, the book, whose original author is anonymous, is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales dating back to the Islamic medieval era.
The centuries-old tales are inspired by Arabic, Indian and Persian stories whose far-reaching magic has hit the West and have been turned into Hollywood films.
Abdul Hakim said their move was prompted by the recent re-publication of the book, which is " a waste of public money".
"We have published One Thousand and One Nights many times, and the latest one is based on an old version revised by a cleric from Al Azhar [the Sunni Muslim world's prestigious institution]," said Ahmad Mejhad, the chairman of the Authority for Cultural Centres, an affiliate of the Ministry of Culture. "This version has no immoral words or illustrations," added Mejhad.
"I am stunned by the calls for confiscating" the book, which is part of the Arab heritage. "We should be proud that this literary work has influenced the world heritage in the East and the West," Majhad said.
