Emirates has banned the “light year” of kissing between two women

The United Arab Emirates announced on Monday that it was banning animation film from Pixar Studios Light yearFirst from a major American production company featuring a gay kissing scene.

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The affluent Gulf state, especially the emirate of Dubai and the Ministry of Tolerance, is relatively liberal compared to its neighbors, but is governed by a number of constraints on political and social issues.

“The Animated Movie Light yearIt is due to be released on June 16 and will not be allowed to be shown in any film in the United Arab Emirates as it violates the media content standards in force in the country, ”the Media Regulatory Office said on Twitter.

According to the agency, which relies on the Ministry of Culture and Youth, all films are “subject to supervision and evaluation prior to being screened to ensure that content transmission is appropriate in relation to age classification”.

Reached through the AFP, the Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on the violated “regulations”. Light yearPosters for the film have already been pasted on the streets of Dubai.

The ban comes six months after the country announced that films screened in their cinemas would no longer be censored but would only be classified according to the age of the audience, with a new category of work for those under 21 being banned.

Censorship is a widespread practice in the Arab world, especially in the more conservative Gulf region. Films that contain scenes that are detrimental to morality are often cut off or banned altogether.

In April, Saudi Arabia asked Disney to remove ‘LGBTQ references’ to the Marvel film. Dr. Strange in Multiverse of MadnessSo it will not be shown in theaters in the Ultra-Conservative realm neighboring the Emirates.

The Emirates has adopted liberal social reforms in recent years to attract more expatriates, with almost 90% of the population being foreigners from all over the world.

Despite these reforms, the NGO Human Rights Watch last week accused it of criminalizing “obscene acts” such as behavior that “degrades public decency and morality” or “incites a life of sin.”