Lebanon, Kuwait Poised to Ban ‘Barbie’ for Promoting Homosexuality

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Barbie has become the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. history in the US, overtaking Christopher Nolan’s 2008 film The Dark Knight.As reported by Variety, Barbie has crossed $537.5million at the domestic box office to take the record.

Barbie has been banned in multiple countries following its release.Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the fantasy comedy has become the second highest-grossing film of 2023 worldwide behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, passing the $1billion mark earlier this month at the box office.The film’s success also crossed another milestone, becoming the highest-grossing live-action movie solely directed by a woman.Ahead of its release in July, Barbie was banned in Vietnam due to a scene featuring a map depicting China’s contested territorial claims in the South China Sea.As reported by Reuters, the scene shows “an offending image” of the “nine-dash line”, which is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over large areas of the South China Sea, which is contested by Vietnam.A number of films have recently been banned in the country for the same reason, including Sony’s Uncharted and Dreamworks’ animated film Abominable.Kuwait subsequently banned Barbie after the film promoted “ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order”, according to Lafy Al-Subei’e, an under secretary of the Ministry for Press and Publication in the country (via the New York Times).Around the same time (August 9), Lebanon’s culture minister, Mohammad Mortada, made moves to ban Barbie, saying that the film was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation”.

Ellise Shafer “Barbie” has been banned in Algeria in its third week of release, according to Reuters. In a statement to the news site, an unnamed “official source” said that the film “promotes homosexuality and other Western deviances” and “does not comply with Algeria’s religious and cultural beliefs.” The news was first reported by local site 24H Algerie on Monday, which wrote that the North African country’s Ministry of Culture and Arts had asked theaters showing the film to immediately remove it from their schedules.

Algerian authorities have pulled runaway box office hit Barbie from local cinemas over its “damaging morals”.

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Talk to Me has found itself embroiled in a wave of unexpected controversy after being banned in Kuwait. The movie is no longer allowed in the Middle Eastern country due to its inclusion of a transgender actor. The ban, enforced by Kuwaiti authorities, is ostensibly aimed at safeguarding “public ethics and social traditions,” according to a statement from the state news agency.Zoe Terakes, who identifies as non-binary and trans-masculine, takes on a pivotal role in the spine-tingling A24 production as the enigmatic character Hayley.

Barbie movie has been banned in Kuwait and now faces calls for a ban in Lebanon amid complaints in the Arab nations about the film’s social values.Kuwait’s state news agency said that the nation acted to protect the country’s “public ethics”, while Lebanon’s culture minister accused the film of “promoting homosexuality”.The film is however still being shown in other conservative parts of the region, including Saudi Arabia.Barbie, which is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has grossed more than $1bn (£784m) worldwide within weeks of its release.Lafi al-Subaiei, the head of Kuwait’s board of film classification, said that the board usually asks for movie scenes to be cut if they are deemed to flout the country’s culture. But when a film promotes behaviour the state considers unacceptable, it is banned outright.The film “promulgate[s] ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order”, a spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information said (via BBC News).On Wednesday, the Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada asked the interior ministry to “take all necessary measures to ban” Barbie.He said the film “promotes homosexuality and transsexuality… supports rejecting a father’s guardianship, undermines and ridicules the role of the mother, and questions the necessity of marriage and having a family”.Meanwhile, in the US, comedian and actor Marc Maron recently hit out at the film’s conservative critics, describing them as “insecure babies”.“The fact that certain men took offence to the point where they, you know, tried to build a grift around it in terms of their narrative as right wing [expletive] is so embarrassing for them.

Lebanon has banned “Barbie” screenings entirely.

topped $1 billion in global ticket sales, some countries still aren’t on board.The bubblegum pink flick won’t see a premiere in Kuwait to protect “public ethics and social traditions,” Reuters reported.Lafi Al-Subaie, chairman of the film censorship committee in Kuwait, has accused “Barbie” of “carrying ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society’s values,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, which cited local media reports. And in Lebanon, per Reuters, the film has been accused of “promoting homosexuality.”Minister Mohammad Mortada, who is supported by the powerful political party and militant group Hezbollah, said the movie was found to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation” and “contradicts values of faith and morality,” as it lessens the “importance of the family unit.”Because of Mortada’s statements, Lebanon’s interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi, has asked the General Security’s censorship committee to review the film and give its recommendation, according to Reuters.The Post reached out to Warner Bros.

The Barbie movie isn’t going to be found in Lebanon anytime soon.

Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros’ billion-dollar grossing Barbie won’t be getting a release in Kuwait, and it’s skating on thin ice in Lebanon.

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