KSA mulls over possible ban on 'Barbie' due to censor board disagreements

Greta Gerwigrsquos lsquoBarbiersquo has been a point of contention in the Middle East and a lot of Islamic countries with certain countries having banned it altogether such as Qatar and KuwaitThe movie was released in the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was planning on releasing it on August 31 after making a few edits But now the country is pondering over the possibility of a full on banThe movie was a big point in the Middle East because despite it being a fun hearted family comedy movie the filmsrsquo LGBTQ themes alongside its consumerist attitude did not fare well in the Middle East with Israel having released itEarlier the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had begun promoting its own local pictures such as lsquoSattarrsquo which overtook James Cameronrsquos lsquoAvatar 2 The Way of Waterrsquo by a massive margin While they had surprisingly declared that they will release lsquoBarbiersquo much to the surprise of many now the country has hinted at a possible banAs reported by Variety the reason for this stems from a multilayered web covering both the countryrsquos politics and religious aspects as well as social and cultural apprehensionsThe censor board of the country remains divided on the issue as some suggest that the movie has little to no harm to do the countryrsquos norms and social fabric and with some edits to the movie such as Barbie deriding aspects of patriarchy and whatnot the movie could be releasedBut now there is a growing fear that the movie will promote too many Western values in the country and also result in people cashing in on Barbie dolls at a difficult economic time Plus there is the additional fear that this could potentially damage the social fabric of the country promoting values incompatible with the countryrsquos valuesThe movie was already aired in the UAE and was even given a massive appearance on the Burj Khalifa and KSA also had little problem with the movie but with the increasing criticism the movie has gotten from global audiences regarding its preachy attitude regarding patriarchy and promotion of LBGTQ themes has resulted in the country reconsidering its August 31 release dateAs such the movie has been postponed until KSA censor boards come to a full agreement but as of such the movie may well just end up facing a ban as many religious clerics have also opposed the filmSome of the other countries where lsquoBarbiersquo was banned include Bahrain Iran Vietnam Philippines and Russia among othersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever