Translation can be hazardous to health
To translators in the West, it might seem that there could be few professions as innocuous as our own. Generally, we all settle down at home and translate our projects in peace and tranquillity; this is certainly not the case in other parts of the world, however, as has often been reported within this site; now it seems that a translation of the Koran has landed one translator with a possible death sentence.
Afghan journalist Ghows Zalmay was arrested in November last year for translating the Koran into Dari (one of the two official languages in Afghanistan) and because his translated version has been deemed ‘unacceptable’ there are growing calls for a capital sentence to be meted out; calls that are being supported by the former Prime Minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai.
The main objections to Zalmay’s translation are that it seriously mis-interprets Islamic teachings on alcohol, begging, homosexuality and adultery and that it has not been published side by side with an Arabic version, as is usual.
This case is set against a backdrop of an increasingly growing perception in some Afghan quarters that there has been a widespread loosening of Islamic morals within the country and that this has been encouraged and abetted by the presence of Western powers within the country.
Ghows Zalmay is due to face formal charges of blasphemy in an Afghan court within the next week or so.