Kuwait bans Barbie as Lebanon calls for action
Recently a week before the movie was scheduled to release in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was abruptly removed from theater schedules in the Middle East, reportedly due to a sequence in which a transgender poster momentarily appears in the movie’s background. After Spider-Man failed to clear the country’s censorship rules, Barbie became the newest victim of the lawbreaker following this.
Although there is no overt sexuality in Barbie, the all-star cast includes Kate McKinnon, a gay man, and Hari Nef, a trans woman. Even while some have criticized it for propagating a heteronormative narrative, the movie has received a lot of support from the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a statement released by the state-run KUNA news agency, Kuwait announced the ban late on Wednesday, claiming the movie promotes “ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order,” without providing any further details.
According to Mohammad Mortada, the culture minister in Lebanon, the movie “contradicts values of faith and morality” and “promotes homosexuality and sexual transformation.” His request to outlaw the movie was sent to Lebanon’s General Security Agency, which is a part of the Interior Ministry and usually decides on censorship issues.
The action has already provoked outrage in Lebanon, which has traditionally been regarded as a safe haven for homosexuals. Since a severe economic crisis and the rise of influential Islamist and far-right Christian organisations there, the LGBTQ+ community has come under increasing pressure.
In the Middle East, homosexuality is viewed as wicked by many Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Members of the LGBTQ+ community have been detained and given prison sentences in some Arab countries. Authorities in Iraq have even forbidden media outlets from using the term “homosexuality,” directing them to instead use the term “sexual deviance.” The country’s education minister has issued a directive prohibiting the use of the phrase at universities.
Barbie Box office collection worldwide
In recent years, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have both made enormous investments in sports, entertainment, and travel. However, they outlaw homosexuality and see LGBTQ+ advocacy as a threat to their cultures that needs to be put down, much like the majority of the Middle East. The movie’s regional premiere was originally scheduled for August 31 but has since been moved up, suggesting that any censorship difficulties have been handled. The release of movies in the area is sometimes postponed so that committees or production firms can filter or review them.
Despite being outlawed in the majority of the Arab World, Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which was released last year and featured a lesbian couple, was screened in Lebanon. While it was explicitly banned in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, the 2021 movie Eternals, which included the first gay kiss in the Marvel cinematic world, was censored but nevertheless screened in Lebanon.
Movie Producers or LGBTQ community did not respond to questions for comment on whether or not the film was censored for regional release.
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