Netherlands: Iranian-Dutch author knighted by French

France has honored the Iranian-Dutch author Kader Abdoluah as a knight of the Order of Arts and Literature, according to the French embassy in the Netherlands. Ambassador Jean-Michel Gaussot will give the honor to the author on Tuesday, at the same time that the French translation of his book The House of the Mosque will be published by Gallimard.

Kader Abdolah came to the Netherlands in 1988 as a political refugee. From the beginning he tried to write in Dutch. In 1993 his career took off with the publication of The Eagles (De Adelaars). Four of his books had been translated into French, and all were published by Gallimard.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

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1 comment:

John Rohan said...

This is odd - since France is a Republic (has legally rejected the idea of a monarch or titles of nobility), how can they knight anyone?