Tim Allen and Tom Hanks voice Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody in Pixar’s “Toy Story.”
Disney
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Disney Pixar’s animated film “Lightyear” is coming to theaters this week and is expected to attract ardent “Toy Story” fans from several countries around the world.
Although not in the United Arab Emirates.
The United Arab Emirates’ media regulatory office announced on Monday that it would ban the film’s release on the grounds that it “violates the country’s media content standards”, the office wrote in a tweet. The feature film was scheduled to release in UAE cinemas on 16 June.
The government body did not specify in its tweet which part of “Lightyear” violated its content standards, but executive director Rashid Khalfan Al Nuaimi told Reuters It was based on the inclusion of gay characters. The film features a same-sex relationship and brief kisses.
The decision received mixed reactions online, with some Twitter users praising the move.
“Thank you so much for saving our kids,” one user, who had UAE flags in his bio, said in response to the tweet.
Others criticized the ban, with one user writing, “a country still living in the 1300s.”
As of late Tuesday night in Dubai, “Lightyear” was still advertised as premiering on 16 June. UAE’s Vox Cinemas website, Disney did not immediately return a request for comment from CNBC.
An inflatable Disney+ logo is pictured at a press event ahead of the launch of a streaming service in the Middle East and North Africa at the Dubai Opera in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, June 7, 2022.
Yousef Saba | Reuters
Homosexuality is outlawed in the United Arab Emirates, as well as the rest of the Gulf countries and most of the Muslim world. According to entertainment news website Deadline Hollywood, light year will not be playing In Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt or Indonesia – the latter is the most populous Muslim country in the world with 274 million people.
It also won’t play in Malaysia, according to a tweet from the country’s leading movie theater chain GSC, which posted a photo of Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear character and the words, “No Beyond” — a reference to the character’s catchphrase, “To Eternal”. beyond.”
The UAE ban comes despite an announcement last year that the country would no longer censor films. The change was part of a broader modernization of reforms, including premarital sex and a change from Islamic weekend (Friday–Saturday) to Saturday–Sunday weekend, to be more competitive globally and attract more foreign investment. Talent.
Sunbathing women sit by a beach in the Gulf Emirates of Dubai on July 24, 2020, as the Burj Al-Arab hotel is seen behind.
Karim Sahib | AFP via Getty Images
Over the years the UAE has positioned itself as a modern, tolerant haven in a highly conservative region. The oil-rich desert Sheikhdom is home to 90% of the expatriate population, and permits drinking, bikini-wearing on public beaches, and other cultural elements often forbidden in Muslim countries.
Its nightclubs resemble those of Europe, it regularly hosts concerts by famous rappers and pop stars, and it also eased penalties on some of its drug laws last year. In 2016, it established the Ministry of Tolerance.
However, homosexuality is taboo in the country. When the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi published an Instagram post that featured a rainbow and expressed its support for the LGBTQ+ community, it was met with a response from users in the country.
This is not the first time the US Embassy has celebrated LGBTQ+ rights in the UAE. Last year, IT hoisted the pride flag in its premisesFor the first time, a diplomatic mission has raised the flag of gay pride in the religiously conservative Arabian Gulf. Last year the British Embassy also hoisted the flag of pride.