BLACK SABBATH, GUNS N' ROSES Lyrics Banned In Iran

November 17, 2006

According to South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online, dozens of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country's publishing industry into crisis. Among the forbidden items is a successful series of books featuring lyrics by BLACK SABBATH, QUEEN and GUNS N' ROSES. Stores were told to remove the books or face closure. Permission was subsequently denied for the publisher to reprint.

The clampdown has been headed by the hardline Culture Minister, Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi, a former revolutionary guard and close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It follows a relative thaw during the eight-year presidency of Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor, Mohammed Khatami.

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).