Dalal Al-Mutairi, head of the Foreign Books Department at Kuwait's Ministry of Misinformation explained to the Kuwait Times abut book censorship in the repressive state:
Censorship laws set the basic rules to deal with right and wrong acts
announced or published in the media. This is also related to books, electronic publications and games and many other things.
There are certain red lines that should not be crossed by the publishers, writers, authors and others. In order
to check the application of the laws and that it's not violated, there are inspectors and censors working at the Ministry of Information, she added.
As a censor, I read a book from beginning to the end, word by word. In case the censor
makes a mistake, the head of the department will be responsible for this mistake, as they should also read the book. The time to finish censoring a book depends on the kind of the book. For instance, a philosophical book needs about four days to read,
Dalal added.
This department was set up in the year 2000. Before we were working in the censorship department that included newspapers, magazines, books and any other printed material. It was then separated into a foreign books section and
an Arabic books section. The censor in the foreign department is responsible for many different languages.
We have a list of banned books in Kuwait and we deal with publications containing forbidden material that are not on this list, and
which we have to censor. The author or the distributor of this censored publication can appeal the decision issued by the censorship department at the ministry, and then another committee will review the publication to give its decision. Usually we are
not very strict with foreign books, she admitted.
According to the law, if there is a violation, the censor writes a report about it. Nobody can distribute any book unless he has a license to do so. The distributor should bring a copy of
the book to our department. Sometimes we receive complaints from people regarding some books. Then we investigate with the printing press that published and printed this book. The printing house is responsible for the material and books printed by it and
they should inform the Ministry of Information that they are printing a book, and then the book is not distributed without a license. There are some censors and inspectors from our department who inspect different printing presses to check their license,
Dalal stated.
The greatest load on the department is during the Book Fair. We start censoring the books in this fair about three months before it is held. We receive about 7,000 to 8,000 books to read. There are about 15 censors working on
this fair. These censors take the books home with them to finish their reading. If we find a book containing restrictions, we write a report that is passed to a committee which decides that certain books will be banned from the fair, she highlighted.
The media or press sometimes exaggerates in describing the situation or news. Always during each Book Fair, the media writes about banning hundreds of books from being sold. And they blame us for this. The committee that decides the ban
consists of members in high positions from outside and inside the Ministry of Endowments and the Ministry of Information. The censor is not responsible for the ban. He only reads and gives his opinion according to the law, she added.
It
takes about a year or a year and a half to become a censor, as the person is first employed as a censor assistant. The employee first starts slow in reading and it takes him a week or days to finish a book. Also, beginners are not given political or
religious books in the beginning as these are difficult. Instead we give them children's books or some scientific books, which are easy, said Dalal. In some religious books, the censorship department cooperates with the Ministry of Endowments. Religious opinions may differ and that's why we demand a professional explanation, although we have some censors who are graduates of the Faculty of Islamic Law. Some religious issues are transferred to the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs. The banned books include publications printed in Israel, Christian missionary and Jewish books and other similar books,
she noted.
The censors have to pass some courses and practicals to be eligible to do this job. After graduating and appointment to this job, the new censor receives practical training at the Ministry of Information. For instance, he or she
is given a book containing violations to be censored and we see how good they are. Within a year or so, they will be completely trained. Also the employee receives a course about the laws related to censorship. Usually the employees are graduates from
the college of political science, history and similar fields, she concluded.
