Lebanon, Kuwait ban ‘Barbie’ film for ‘promoting homosexuality’

‘Barbie‘, the comedy fantasy movie, has been banned in Lebanon and Kuwait for allegedly promoting homosexuality.

According to the CNN, Mohammad Mortada, Lebanon’s minister of culture, issued the ban in a statement on Wednesday, citing that the movie “promotes homosexuality and contradicts religious values”.

In the statement, Mortada 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”.

‘Barbie’ was scheduled to be screened in Lebanon’s cinemas starting from August 31.

In the same vein, the Kuwaiti ministry of information’s committee on cinematic censorship also prohibited the movie’s screening.

Lafy Al-Subei, the head of Kuwait’s cinema censorship committee, said the scenes in the movie “go against public ethics”.

He added that the decision was made “to protect public and social traditions”.

“While deciding on any foreign movie, the committee usually orders censoring of the scenes that run counter to public ethics,” he said.

“But [if] a film carries alien concepts, message or unacceptable behaviour, the committee decides to bar the stuff in question as a whole.”

The movie was similarly banned in Vietnam in early July due to a map depicting China’s claim to the South China Sea.

On July 23, ‘Barbie’ secured the top position at the US box office, earning over $155 million in its opening weekend.

It has now gone past box-office expectations, hitting $1 billion in box office revenues three weeks since its release.