Algeria has withdrawn the film from its cinemas Barbie for “attacking morality”, after a broadcast of more than two weeks, several media in this Maghreb country said. According to the online news site 24H Algérie, which cites “well-informed sources”, the film has been canceled from all theaters in the country for “attacking morality”.
On Sunday, theater owners changed the schedules by removing Greta Gerwig’s film, without giving reasons. The distributor also announced the deprogramming of the film, released on July 19 in Algeria, without details.
Banned in Kuwait and probably Lebanon
“Algeria ended up being won over by the controversy over Barbie because of scenes intended for an adult audience” and allusions to homosexuality, explained the TSA information site, also ensuring that the film had been “discreetly withdrawn from cinemas”. Nearly 48 hours after its deprogramming, the Algerian Ministry of Culture, which usually announces film bans specifying the reasons, is still silent.
Last Thursday, Kuwait banned it for “undermining public morals”. The day before, the Lebanese Ministry of Culture indicated that it had requested its ban, considering that it was “promoting homosexuality”, against the backdrop of growing anti-LGBT + (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other) rhetoric in one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East. Barbie is still not broadcast in Qatar, which however has not made an official announcement on this subject.