« Those Fighting the War on Terror Here Might Not be Scaring the Enemy But Sure Terrify Me! | Main | The Retreat of Reason by Anthony Browne »
December 23, 2005
What a Difference an 'a' Makes
It is reported in Wednesday’s Times that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has decided to put into effect a ruling of his country’s Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, of which he happens also to be head, calling for the banning of all western music from that country’s state television and radio.
‘Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is required’ the Revolutionary Council is reported as having decreed.
While much western music is certainly indecent -- one has only to think of some of West Life’s more recent feeble efforts -- one has to wonder what could lie behind the ban.
A clue might be provided by the detail in the report that Iranian television often uses as background music for its programmes songs performed by Eric Clapton.
One of these, however, is a song that, one would have thought, should have given the Iranian president cause to promote its broadcasting. It is Clapton’s masterpiece ‘Layla’, composed after he had fallen hopelessly in love with Patti Boyd, the estranged wife of Clapton’s close friend and fellow legendary guitarist, George Harrison.
To express the depths of his frustrated forbidden love, Clapton drew on the classic Middle Eastern story, dating back to the Ummayad period, about a man driven to madness by his love for a young woman, named ‘Layla’, after her father forbade her to marry him. That story later passed into Persian literature after it was turned into an epic poem by the Persian poet, Nezami.
What better symbol could there be of Islam’s growing influence in the West, one might have supposed, than the frequent broadcasting in Iran of this Clapton song?
What, then, could possibly have led Iran’s President to ban Clapton’s music from his country’s air-waves?
Deep reflection on this vital issue of the hour has enabled me to come up with two possible solutions to this conundrum.
One possibility is that the presumably less than full mastery of the English language on the part of President Ahmadinejad caused him to mishear the lyrics of another well-known song that has been immortalised by Clapton’s version of it. This is his rendition of Bob Marley's reggae classic, ‘I shot the sheriff.’
Had President Ahmadinejad misheard as an ‘a’ the ‘e’ that occurs in the last word of the song’s title, which also forms the opening line of the song’s chorus, what he would have heard Clapton to be boasting of having done is to have ‘shot the Sharif’.
The broadcasting of such a claim could never be tolerated in a country that proudly boasts as its sole think- tank one named ‘Sharif’, and which, furthermore, according to its mission statement, aspires to be ‘the most pioneer[ing] national and world-class think-tank that plays an essential role in national development and human life improvement all around the world.’
Should, however, as I suspect, that not be the correct explanation for the ban, it could surely only have been imposed because, since, in that part of the world, the term ‘Layla’ has become synonymous with 'lunatic', President Ahmadinejad was concerned, not without some cause, Clapton's song of that name might well become, in time, forever associated with his -- not only in our country, but his!
As we here too at Civitas about to assume radio-silence for the duration of the festivities, may I on its behalf extend to all visitors to the Civitas blog a hearty Season’s Greetings and hope that 2006 will prove a more peaceful year than the tumultuous one to which we are shortly to bid farewell!
Posted by David Conway at December 23, 2005 09:00 AM
Comments
Very entertaining but not factual. The Iranian poet is not strictly speaking Nezami but Ferdousi who wrote the most famous version of the story which eventually through many transformations we now know as Romeo and Juliet.
The woman is called Layla. The man is Majnun which means mad. Layla means 'night'
I agree with many of David Conways comments but not this time.
The reason for the attempted ,and doomed ban , is the growing domestic opposition to the president who was elected by a mixture of contradictory forces.
He is therefore making empty gestures. Sabre rattlign to 0please his domstic audience and reactionary pronuncements to maintain support among the hardliners.
More significantly his nomination for oil minister was rejected by the Iranian parliament. They had the good sense to insist on a proper technocrat.
cih rHe
Posted by: angela pinter at December 30, 2005 04:04 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(Because we are bombarded by huge amounts of spam, if you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site moderator before your comment will appear. Thank you very much for waiting.)