UAE: Sex and the City Movie Banned, Called "Anti-Muslim"

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
http://www.realcourage.org/2010/05/uae-satc2-banned/

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) National
Media Council has decided that the new movie "Sex and the City 2"
will be banned from being shown in UAE cinemas. The movie is scheduled
to be released on May 27, 2010.

A senior spokesman for the UAE
National Media Council told Time Out Abu Dhabi that: "Sex and the
City 2 will be banned from being shown in cinemas across the UAE when it
is released for various reasons. Among them are that the film's website
stated that filming was done in Abu Dhabi even though they were denied
permission to do so and that they continue to attribute the locations
shot in Morocco as being in Abu Dhabi, which is false, as the theme of
the film does not fit with our cultural values. Also, they persisted in
using Abu Dhabi's name in the movie despite the fact that no official
permission was given to them to do so."

Promotional Still for "Sex and the City 2" (Photo:
Warner Bros)

The UAE National Media Council is
responsible for judging movies to be shown in the UAE, as well as
censoring films. The UAE National Media Council censorship board has approved
showing of films such as "The Da Vinci Code," however.

While the story in the movie "Sex and the City 2" purportedly takes
place in the UAE, it was not filmed in the UAE, as the UAE
government also forbid filmmakers from shooting the movie in the
UAE. It was filmed in Morocco instead. However, despite refusing to
allow the film to be made in the UAE, and banning showing of the movie
in the UAE, analysts
believe that the UAE
city of Abu Dhabai will get a tourism boost from the showing of the
film.

The writer and director of the movie, Michael
Patrick King, told Collider.com that the reason for choosing UAE
and its city Abu Dhabi for the movie setting was because "it's the new
Middle East and the future... I think there's a very big story in the
Middle East and it also is a very advanced, glamorous capital."

While the movie was being banned in its "setting," the UAE -- in
Hollywood, it was being described
as an "anti-Muslim" movie, by the Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood
Reporter's review
of the movie stated that "[Carrie] and her friends run up against
the puritanical and misogynistic culture of the Middle East... The
rather scathing portrayal of Muslim society no doubt will stir
controversy, especially in a frothy summer entertainment, but there's
something bracing about the film's saucy political incorrectness. Or is
it politically correct? SATC 2 is at once proudly feminist and blatantly
anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers."

The movie is being released as yet another high-profile
UAE prosecution of a woman for alleged sexual "crimes" is in the
news. The latest in a long series of UAE oppressive criminal
prosecutions is the arrest of an 18 year old girl, who stated that she
was a gang rape victim. The Muslim girl "LH" was then charged with the
crime of "consensual sex, which carries a sentence of lashes and up to
life imprisonment for a Muslim girl. "LH" has since retracted her rape
charges and the UAE government prosecution is considering whether to
continue to prosecute her for the crime of "consensual sex," or reduce
the criminal charge to "deception" which carries a prison sentence of 6
months to two years.

In March 2010, the UAE
government convicted an Australian woman who was a rape victim of
"adultery," and sentenced her to 12 months in prison. In January 2010,
the UAE
government arrested and jailed a 23 year old British woman who was a
victim of rape, and charged her with "illegal sex."

In April 2010, a British
woman, Charlotte Adams, was put in jail for one month for alleged
giving someone a kiss on the cheek in public for the crime of
"indecency."

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