Anything that is banned or restricted by some means is always interesting. That’s why you clicked on this article, right? But when you think about stuff that is banned, you rarely think about books. Yet many of them have been banned by certain governments for various reasons. Whether the reasons were political, religious or moral ones, these 10 books were prohibited by state governments, so they must have been really controversial.
Without further ado, here are the top 10 books banned by governments.
10) George Orwell – Animal Farm
The book was banned in USSR and other communist countries, the reason being pretty obvious. It was also banned in the United Arabian Emirates because of its content that goes against their religion (Islam), notably a talking pig. However, today both bans have been lifted.
But the book is still banned in… North Korea!
9) The Bible
It was banned and unbanned many times over the course of history, with some leaders even ordering the burning of all Bibles they could get their hands upon. However, today it is banned in a certain amount of countries, including North Korea. Russia has recently banned the import of a certain edition of The Bible.
8) Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code
From the last part of that sentence, it’s obvious that the Catholic Church didn’t quite like the book. It was thus banned in Lebanon by their Catholic leaders, and it was a very controversial subject for months, if not years, after the publishing.
7) Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron
It was banned by the United States mail in 1873, under the Comstock Law, which directed that you couldn’t send or receive works that contain material that wasn’t appropriate. And The Decameron was a great example of that.
6) Anne Frank – The Diary Of Anne Frank
The book was banned in Lebanon because of its positive depiction of Jewish people. There was also controversy regarding the sexual material of the book in the United States, and it was banned in few communities.
5) E L James – Fifty Shades Trilogy
In 2015, the books were banned in Malaysia for their sadistic material and their “threat to morality”.
4) Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf
The book is banned in the Russinan Federation for being extremist. Distributing copies of the book is prohibited in Austria.
3) The Quran
Most recent banning happened in Russia when a court censored some of the text under ‘extremism’ laws of the country.
2) Salman Rushdie – The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is still banned in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Kenya, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Senegal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand.
1) Lewis Carrol – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The book was banned in the Chinese province of Hunan in 1931, because it portrayed animals acting in the same way as humans. General Ho Chien believed that it was an insult to the entire human race, so he ordered it to be banned.
do you realize that you’ve put a picture of coran while you actually talked about the bible? xD humanity’s stupidity amazes me more every day 😀