Algeria has pulled the film Barbie from its cinemas for alleged violation of morals. Barbie, which has surpassed $1.2 billion in worldwide gross, opened in Algeria on July 19 before theaters removed it from their schedules yesterday without official explanation. According to sources at the online news site 24H Algerie, the film was removed for “violation of morals”. “Algeria has been embroiled in controversy over Barbie due to scenes intended for an adult audience” and allusions to homosexuality, reported the TSA news site. No comment from Algeria’s culture ministry, which usually announces film bans and its reasons.
Algeria is just the latest of the countries in the region to decide to stop showing Barbie: Kuwait blocked the film on Thursday over concerns about “public ethics”, the Lebanese culture minister said the day before it had asked authorities to ban Barbie for allegedly “promoting homosexuality”, the film is not yet screened in Qatar, although there has been no official announcement on the matter
