Speak, Bird, Speak Again

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Speak Bird Speak Again Banned book by Hamas

Speak, Bird, Speak Again: A book of Palestinian folk tales is a book published in English in 1989 and later in Arabic in Lebanon by Palestinian authors Ibrahim Muhawi and professor of sociology and anthropology at Bir Zeit University Sharif Kanaana.

The book contains a collection of 45 Palestinian folk tales drawn from a collection of two hundred tales narrated by women from different areas of historic Palestine (the Galilee, the West Bank, and Gaza). The stories collected were chosen on the basis of their popularity, their aesthetic and narrative qualities, and what they tell about popular Palestinian culture dating back many centuries. The authors spent 30 years collecting the material for the book.

The English version of the book is studied as part of literature courses at both University of California at Berkeley and Chicago University.

[edit] Controversy

In 2007 The Hamas-run Palestinian Authority (PA) banned the book and issued a directive to pull Professor Kanaana's book from school libraries and destroy it. The book has been ordered removed from circulation in the Palestinian territories by Hamas .^[1]^[2],^[3]

The director-general of the PA's Ministry of Education stated:

"The book was withdrawn because of the problems with offensive language which contradicts our beliefs and morals,our society depends on Islamic values and has for hundreds of years,our most important objective is to make curriculum adhere to our social values. This new generation is unable to distinguish between what is harmful and what is beneficial, so we have to protect them from these harmful influences."

The former PA's minister of culture Yahya Yakhlef prior to the Hamas take over in January 2006, says he was shocked.

"We consider this an act of ignorance, wWhat we are worried about is that the trends become a normal pattern in our life, and we'll get to the point where we'll be like a Taliban culture. We will not allow medieval values to dominate."

For his part, member of the Palestinian People's Party's politburo, Haidar Awadallah, described the decision as "a threat to liquidate the democratic heritage of the Palestinian people and their cultural, literary and ideological pluralism. This is done on behalf of a fundamental, superficial and close preaching."

Under pression from the international public outcry over the ban Hamas reversed the ban in March 2007 ^[4].