‘Oh, the double standards’
he pointed to all of me up and down all my body with all words of love came to me whispers while love in my heart unbutton my shirt, hold me closer and treat me as you like of medicine and say to those ignorant who say treatment is forbidden plant never live without crawling clouds.
how will there be surgery without uncovering the body as it is said: some sin is less sinful these verses are not from a rebellious poet, nor for an pre-islam poet, or created by imagination of renowned poet nizar qabbani, but a poem written by the daughter of one of the preachers whose recent controversy and their fatwas were very volatile, as is a majority of the advocates of this age, have no problems.
the verses are quoted from the poem ‘mansiya’ (forgotten) by the kuwaiti poet maysoun tareq al-suwaidan, which bagged the state prize, for the promotion of poetry, ten thousand dinars.
what is important is that it is the minister of information, the president of the national council for culture, arts and letters, his excellency minister mohammad al-jabri who agreed to award it to the poetry. i say frankly that i loved what is contained in the verses of poetry, and i sang it and found it frank and beautiful. i liked it and i paid no attention to who wrote it but i respect her.
because of my weakness in writing poetry and assessing its value other than what i enjoy hearing and what i understand easily, i cannot decide the merits of the award, or support or reject what the competitors say they were more deserving of it.. this is another matter.
my simple question to the minister of information is how he personally approved this poem, and how he decided to award the prize to maysoun al-suwaidan, for such verses, which i have no objection to. at the same time he personally intervened and rebuked the officials on the state tv channel for allowing a kiss in a cartoon movie without being cut, because the cartoon kiss is exciting, and the above verses are not.
how has his censorship department accepted these verses which i have already admired and prevented the publication of my novel ‘abdullatif the armenian’ for five months, because the official in the department is supported by the minister who objected to one word in it?
i wish, one day before i die to know how the censor of literary texts and those who grant state awards think.
