E/CN.4/1995/91 page 36 to have been placed by the police under the surveillance of her parents who were made responsible for bringing her back to Islam. Hanaan Rahman Assofti was allegedly placed in confinement, threatened with death by members of her family and subjected to an intensive programme of religious re-education to make her abjure Christianity. The Special Rapporteur has been informed that the Egyptian writer, Alaa Hamed, who was sentenced in 1990 to eight years’ rigorous imprisonment (the sentence was not executed because it was not ratified by the Prime Minister) for having written a book entitled Distance in the Mind of a Man, was reportedly sentenced a second time in 1992 by the Court of Public Morals to one year in prison for a book called The Mattress, which was printed, but never published, and is reportedly regarded as blasphemous. Mr. Hamed is reported to have appealed to the High Court. He was dismissed from his job in July 1994 on the grounds that The Mattress reflects his opinions, which are incompatible with his obligations as an official of the Income Tax Department, especially as he is constantly with his female colleagues and deals with the public. Mr. Hamed is accused of ’showing contempt for Islam by describing a love scene which takes place on a prayer rug’. Mr. Hamed states: ’What I write has nothing to do with religion. Writing is a creative act. Religion is a relationship between the individual and God’." United Arab Emirates In a communication dated 5 September 1994, addressed to the Government of the United Arab Emirates, the Special Rapporteur transmitted the following information: "According to information received, Shiite Muslims in the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah are not allowed to have their own mosque. In addition, the Emirate of Dubai is said to have placed private mosques under the control of the ’Department of Islamic Affairs and Endowments’ which, if true, would result in that Department having a bigger say in the appointment of preachers. Non-Muslims would be unable to proselytize in public or distribute religious literature. The following cases, briefly summarized here, have been brought to the Special Rapporteur’s attention: In 1993, a British Christian was reportedly arrested and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for proselytizing; In 1992, Mr. Vasudevan Pillai, an Indian writer and Director of the University of Calicut School of Theatre, was reportedly sentenced in absentia to six years’ imprisonment by the Sharjah civil court for blasphemy. He was convicted on the grounds that he had written a play based on a work by Safdar Hashemi and entitled ’Ants that Feast on Corpses’, although Mr. Pillai apparently denies translating the work in question. The play allegedly depicts ants feeding on the bodies of