Iranian book lovers are rushing to buy copies of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, now that it has been banned.
Forget the nuclear program, wiping Israel off the map or going off to fight alongside Hezbollah. What Iranians really want is "The Da Vinci Code."
According to Al-Jazeera, Iranians are desperately scooping up whatever copies they can find of the tale of a married Jewish couple who had a child, after a government ban clamped down on sales.
"I rushed to buy the book when I heard about the ban," said Reza Mortazavi, a 32-year-old teacher, quoted in the Al-Jazeera report. "Now, I am more eager to know what was written in it."
On Wednesday, Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced it was banning further printing and distribution of the book, which has already gone through 8 printings in Farsi, after Christian clerics protested against it.
Mansour Jamshir, a bookstore owner, said: "I had several calls for purchase of the book in a bulk amount and in higher prices."
Earlier this month, Iranian Christian bishops condemned the book, saying it insulted their religion, and asked the Islamic government to ban publishers from printing it. Less than 0.2 percent of Iran's nearly 69 million people are Christian.
Ah, the eternal allure of the banned book. It never fails.
