CONTROVERSIAL writer Faisal Tehrani is back with a new book, Profesor, which is about a lesbian feminist professor trying to fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights among the Malays.

Faisal, whose seven books have been banned by the government, aims to show readers that the Malay community has a long history of accepting people with different sexual orientations.

“My hope is that this book will challenge the belief that Malays and the Malay culture do not have a conception of human rights,” said Faisal, who real name is Faisal Musa.

The novel revolves around Suliza, a lesbian feminist professor, who discovers her sexuality while at a religious school in Kelantan.

She continues her studies in the United States and becomes the target of conservative groups for researching and advocating for human rights for LGBTs.

Though the Profesor’s characters are fictional, they are based on real-life individuals and cases, Faisal said.

Faisal said the novel has been a “long-time coming” as he loved to write about minority groups in Malaysia.

“We have many kinds of minorities who are neglected. For example, we are persecuting the Shia Muslim religious minority,” said Faisal who also teaches at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

“We also have the indigenous people of Sarawak who are concerned about intrusions onto their tribal lands and of their rights being violated,” said the Malay World and Civilisation Research Institute fellow.

“I think it is important to bring all this issues to the centre and talk about it instead of hiding it and putting it under the rug. 

“We need to be open about it,” he told The Malaysian Insight at his book launch at the George Town Literary Festival last night.

The author has had seven of his earlier books banned by the federal government. In a September 6 gazette, the Home Ministry banned Aku______, Maka Aku Ada! published by Dubook Press Sdn Bhd.

The gazette said the book was “likely to be prejudicial to public order, likely to alarm public opinion, and prejudicial to public interest”.

His other banned books include Sebongkah Batu di Kuala Berang, Karbala and Ingin Jadi Nasrallah.

“We just printed 1,500 copies, the rest is in ebook version, somehow I hope that this book will travel far and wide.

“This novel has been a long time coming. I haven’t written anything about the LGBT community, this is another reason I’m writing this.”

Faisal’s book launch was one of the 55 events at the George Town Literary Festival themed “Monsters and (Im)mortals”, which took place last weekend. – November 27, 2017.