A U.S. author's book, an Iranian translator's peril

An Iranian who translated a U.S. author's book, 'Funny in Farsi,' into Persian is in custody, somewhere in Tehran.

Firoozeh Dumas: " "Funny in Farsi" sold almost 100,000 copies before it was banned with no official explanation. Before the ban, I received so many grateful emails from Iran that I was forced to removed my address from my website. Every one basically said the same thing: "Thank you for bringing laughter back into our life. I had forgotten what my parents' laughter sounded like." I replied to as many as I could, and I always said they had Mohammad Soleimani Nia to thank. The book they had read, in their native Persian, would not exist without Mohammad.

Four weeks ago, Mohammad was taken from his parents' house by the Iranian government. No one has heard from him since. He has not been accused of any crime. He is undoubtedly being held in Evin Prison, alongside too many journalists, bloggers and users of social media. Their only crime is living in a country where freedom of speech does not exist."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0207-dumas-translator-20120207,0,5187619.story

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]