Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a South Asian American who has lived in Qatar since 2005. Moving to the Arabian Desert was fortuitous in many ways since this is where she met her husband, had two sons, and became a writer. She has since published eight e-books, including a momoir for first time mothers, Mommy But Still Me; a guide for aspiring writers, So You Want to Sell a Million Copies; a short story collection, Coloured and Other Stories; and a novel about women’s friendships, Saving Peace. Her coming of age novel, An Unlikely Goddess, won the SheWrites New Novelist competition in 2011.
Her recent books have focused on various aspects of life in Qatar. From Dunes to Dior, named as a Best Indie book in 2013, is a collection of essays related to her experiences as a female South Asian American living in the Arabian Gulf. Love Comes Later was the winner of the Best Indie Book Award for Romance in 2013 and is a literary romance set in Qatar and London. The Dohmestics is an inside look into compound life, the day-to-day dynamics between housemaids and their employers.
Mohana’s latest book Love Comes Later was recently denied permission to distribute locally by the publications department of the Ministry of Arts and Culture. In our interview with Mohana, she talks about the ban, literary censorship and the idea of home.
Loren Kleinman (LK): Love Comes Later is your second independently publish novel. It’s won three book awards, including the New Talent Award Finalist, Romance Festival, 2012. The book explores a love triangle between two Qatari cousins who are engaged to each other, and the friend of the fiancee. While it provides insights into the lives of Qatari families, JustHere Qatar suggests it “has little by way of controversial revelations.” However, the book was denied permission to distribute locally by the publications department of the Ministry of Arts and Culture. Is there any excuse to justify literary censorship? Why? Why not?
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar (MR): Literary censorship is the control of reading material. In some sense we all self-censor because we self-select or filter what we are interested in. The decision to ban certain types of books is a form of filtering that isn’t found in other media in the GCC. For example films like Wolf of Wall Street are still shown, but much shorter without the sexual content. Drug use, swearing, misogynistic behavior, are all left in, perhaps in an effort to create an acceptable list within the unacceptable category.
LK: You mention that after two weeks of follow up calls to the office, from Feb 10-24th, you finally reached someone who said they could not find any trace of the book being submitted. After going back to the distributor to find out where exactly they had sent the ministry located the book. You called back and they said there was no need for a meeting “because they would first read it and then prepare a report to send to the Sheikha.” Was there ever a report prepared that you knew of? Why didn’t the ministry just say at that point that they were rejecting the book’s distribution? Why lie?
MR: Creating reports on books are the standard procedure for the Ministry in order to clear them but they don’t always share these with authors, publishers or distributors. Often there are verbal comments given to the submitter of the book but in this case, despite requesting them, all I was told is that “The book is about Qatar and Qataris.”
LK: What happened the week of March 3? What was the Ministry representative’s response?
MR: I was told on the 6th that the official would call me back. He didn’t and when I called, there was no answer. The conversation went like this:
“Hello. This is Mohana. I’m calling about the status of my book, Love Comes Later?”
“The one about the Qataris?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Wait, I’ll call you back.”
LK: After March 10 you received no further response, correct? A representative’s response indicated that there was no possible way to get information from the Ministry as they do not reply to requests for additional information. How could a query about the location of the book be considered “additional information”?
MR: At this time we were asking for information about the decision to ban it from being sold in Qatar (they located the book on the 27th of Feb).
LK: What’s been the response from readers in regard to the recent ban on your book? Has there been any push back from Qatari readers?
MR: Everyone has been surprised at the reason. Those who have read it said they found it surprising since there’s nothing on the big 3 list of forbidden topics (politics, religion or sex).
When I told her, that the book had been banned because it was about Qatar and Qataris, one Qatari colleague said: “So what? Are Qataris Gods?”
Many people have been asking me where they can buy a copy.
LK: This isn’t the first incident of Qatari censorship. Last October, according to JustHere Qatar, Qatari poet Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami has been “sentenced to 15 years in prison for ‘inciting a revolt.’” We’ve witnessed several book bans throughout the years in the former Soviet Union, China, and even Ireland. Not only bans, but poets, writers and artists have been killed because of various forms of artistic expression. How does artistic censorship affect human growth within the framework of society and culture? How does this limit our basic nature to be free?
MR: Censorship has an ironic effect on art: telling people not to pay attention to something is like reverse psychology. You say, “Don’t think of pink elephants,” and your mind immediately goes to Fantasia.
LK: Has this ban changed your feelings towards your ideas of home?
MR: As the child of immigrant intellectuals, I have a very fluid approach to identity. As the mother of multicultural children, whose husband is of an East Asian American ancestry, home has come to mean the place where we establish community with others. We met in Qatar; our two children were born here; I’ve lived here for 9 years which is 3 times the average span for an expat (which is 3 years). This has been our home and hopefully it will be for a long time to come.
LK: Is Qatar afraid of change? Are we all inherently afraid of change? And does that fear of change make us more inclined to propagate control of the things that are changing faster than we can keep up with?
MR: Qatar is embracing change wholeheartedly from the ambitious international projects, like hosting the 2022 World Cup, the multi-varsity Education City project, to the roads and buildings going up seemingly overnight.
But as my Qatari boss, at the national university used to say, it’s much easier to change outward structures than inward attitudes.
LK: Charles Bukowski said, “Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can’t vent any anger against them. I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere, in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence. They were only taught to look one way when many ways exist.” Would you agree, then, that censorship supports the elimination of our existence? In other words, does this form of control suggest that human life, including artistic intelligence, is meaningless? Does this sadden you?
MR: I do find it difficult that a project of many years, which was created with an eye towards cultural accuracy and sensitivity, may not reach part of its intended audience. I am currently at work on the sequel to this novel – this is a planned series of 3 books – and these events may alter the way in which I approach the content of that text; this may be my permission to make it even edgier. The only way to know for sure is to keep writing.
Learn more about Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar’s work on her website at www.mohanalakshmi.com or follow her on Twitter: @moha_doha.