‘Barbie’ has been ruling at theatres across the world, but there is trouble brewing for the film in Pakistan, as Islamabad has taken a ban into consideration due to the film’s LGBTQ+ themes.
But the answer is not a definitive one because the movie is all the rage right now and something that has the audience’s interest, but with many extremists opposing it, Pakistan’s Punjab Censor Board has put a temporary ban on it due to what they consider “objectionable content.”
According to Daily Pakistan, the ban on the movie will eventually be removed once the “objectionable content” is cut out of the movie. As such, the Punjab Censor Board’s authorities are reviewing the film and will later release a reviewed copy of the movie which will hit Pakistani cinemas on a later unknown date, as the process would take a couple of days to complete.
However, Pakistan is not the only Muslim country to ban the film as other Islamic nations such as UAE, Egypt, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia.
As most Islamic nations don’t view pro LGBTQ content with great enthusiasm, nor do they take it very positively, such bans on Hollywood films and serials that have pro-LGBTQ content is not uncommon.
While the other countries have only put a temporary ban on it, Iran has permanently banned it. Apart from Islamic nations, countries such as Russia, Vietnam and Philippines have also banned the movie.
Russia temporarily banned the film due to it what the state considers “promoting a consumerist attitude among infants” while Vietnam and Philippines banned it due to its depiction of the Nine Dash Line which these counties say violates their sovereignty as a depiction of this line, strengthens China’s claims in the South China Sea over which these nations have outright rejected China’s claims.
Director Greta Gerwig’s fantasy-comedy movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is doing extremely well both critically and commercially, going housefull in most theatres including India.
Its competitor ‘Oppenheimer’ is faring just as well, with an overwhelmingly positive reception scoring ahead of ‘Barbie’ in the reception department, though ‘Barbie’ is likely to rule the box office as the ‘Barbenheimer’ war continues.