“Barbie” Movie Is Banned in These Countries. But, Why?
© Warner Bros
I guess this is not “Barbie’s World” after all. The Barbie movie is one of the best-selling films of the decade but turns out not everyone is a fan of our girl Barbie. Lebanon, Kuwait, Vietnam, and Algeria have all teamed up to end the Barbie movie once and for all. Well, kind of.
These four countries have officially banned Barbie from airing in their local cinemas. With the news breaking on the internet, people started wondering and asking why this would happen.
Why Was the Barbie Movie Banned?
Kuwait and Lebanon have decided to ban the film “Barbie” from being screened in theaters, each citing different reasons for their actions. In Kuwait, the country’s film censorship committee chairman, Lafi Al-Subaie, stated that the film carried ideas that encouraged “unacceptable behavior” and “distorted the values of society.” Meanwhile, Lebanon’s culture minister, Mohammad Mortada, claimed that the movie “promoted homosexuality” and “contradicted values related to faith and morality.”
Mortada went further by formally requesting Lebanon’s General Security agency, responsible for censorship decisions in the country, to take action to prevent the film from being shown in theaters.
Interestingly, “Barbie” has faced a separate ban in Vietnam for a completely different reason. The Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism revoked the film’s license to be shown in theaters due to a world map displayed in the movie. The Vietnamese government interpreted this map as offensive due to a long-standing maritime border dispute with China. The map featured a backward S-shaped line, which Vietnam saw as a representation of China’s unilateral territorial claim over the South China Sea.
In response to the controversy, Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, explained that the map in question was a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing in a scene set in Barbie Land. They emphasized that it was not intended to make any type of political or territorial statement.
Other Countries That Have Banned the Movie
Some of the countries who have decided to hop on the “Barbie Movie banned” train are:
- Pakistan, for objectionable, LGBTQ+ content.
- Lebanon, for “promoting homosexuality and sexual transformation”.
- Philippines, for the same China map issue.
- Saudi Arabia, for violating Islamic values.
Phew, well that was a ride! While others had no trouble with the movie and its contents, these countries had their opinion on the matter.
What do you think, should these countries have banned the Barbie movie based on their reasoning or not? Let us know down below!
