Once upon a time, a popular fairy tale was plucked from a school library in Qatar after an outraged parent complained that it was full of sexual innuendos.
The offending storybook was based on the classic Disney film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," in which a young woman eats a poisonous apple and is later revived by a handsome prince's kiss.
After a parent at SEK International School Qatar voiced concern that the book's illustrations and text were culturally inappropriate, Qatar's Supreme Education Council, or SEC, ordered its removal, Doha News reported on Thursday.
The school's principal, Vivian Arif, quickly moved to ensure no child would ever read it there again. “SEK International School Qatar is proud to be established in this country and presents its formal apologies for any offense that this unintended situation may have caused," she said in a statement to Doha News.
As The Guardian points out, censorship of sexual or obscene content is not unusual in Qatar, which recently banned all showings of "The Danish Girl," a British film that features a transgender protagonist, for supposedly depraved content.
Schools in Qatar must adhere to the rules set out by the SEC, which posted excerpts of SEK International School Qatar's apology on its Arabic Twitter account. According to its own website, the SEC aims to observe "international best practices, while preserving and taking into account the Islamic values and local traditions."