More than once we talk about the attempt of Arab countries, especially in the Gulf region, to show openness and liberality towards the West in recent years – countries that are perceived as very conservative and governed according to the strict rules of Islamic law, led by Saudi Arabia. But it seems that recently we received more evidence that there is a limit to this openness.
How exactly did animated films for children manage to anger the authorities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries and make them threaten Netflix by darkening the screen?Replying to @The_Kiss_ @MoavVardi #the_world_today pic.twitter.com/LCDpEY3iTY
— here news (@kann_news) September 9, 2022
A committee on behalf of those responsible for electronic communications in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the body that brings together the six Sunni Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Emirates and Oman) met to discuss Netflix’s “problematic” content and issued the following message: “Netflix broadcasts The latter is material and content that goes against the media content rules in the Gulf countries, content that is inconsistent with Islamic and social values and principles. If Netflix continues to broadcast this content, the necessary legal steps will be taken.”
So what happened suddenly? It turns out that the Saudis and their partners noticed some animated films for children during which there were inappropriate scenes in their terms, especially in everything related to physical contact and no less serious for them between same-sex couples. It really doesn’t end with this announcement because an extensive campaign against Netflix has begun on social media and the Saudi state television has also joined the national effort to get Netflix to remove the “problematic” content. Here is an excerpt from her letter on Saudi television which included quite a few blurbs and also an interviewee who explains
Video | #Netflix It promotes child homosexuality under a cinematic cover.
Will it be blocked? #Netflix In Saudi Arabia soon?#theday_news#news pic.twitter.com/kxu5zJ20en
– News Channel (@alekhbariyatv) September 6, 2022
In fact, the claim of the supporters of the campaign is that there is a Western attempt to undermine the foundations on which the younger generation is educated – and this is the real story, here is the dissonance because the fear is that if they loosen the rope too much and expose the children to homosexuality, to intimate scenes, to apostasy in religion then it will create a mass of Rebellion in government and social conventions.
And in the same matter – a story from the last few months. A number of countries in the Middle East, more than 15, including Saudi Arabia and the Emirates decided not to broadcast the Disney Plus movie “Light Years”, the same toy character of a story after it contained a scene of a few seconds of a kiss between two female characters. Disney did not agree to take down the scene in question and the countries simply boycotted the film. In the Saudi context, we will only mention that only in recent years has the leadership reopened the cinemas after decades.