Search: “banned”

Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been banned in Kuwait and so will not be available to download here. Everyone who preordered the game will be getting the order canceled and refunded. Activision released the following statement:

At this time, the title will not be available for release in the region. As a result, all pre-orders in Kuwait will be cancelled and refunded to the original point of purchase. We remain hopeful that local authorities will reconsider, and allow players in Kuwait to enjoy this all-new experience in the Black Ops series. source

The Gulf War setting of the game is likely to be the reason for the ban. But, it’s kinda weird since the game hasn’t come out yet so doubt whoever banned it locally got an early release to evaluate the contents. When a movie gets banned it’s usually after screening, Black Ops 6 is getting banned before screening. So maybe once the game is out and the game is screened they will unban it. For now I guess you can download the game if you have a US account which is what I have, or purchase it next time you’re abroad.

I actually wasn’t interested in the game nor did I realize it was Gulf War related until the ban, but now I’m totally getting it. The game is released on October 25 worldwide.

update: Turns out I don’t even need to buy it since it will be available from day 1 as part of the Xbox Game Pass membership.

News on an Australian film being banned in Kuwait has been popping up on my news feed all morning. A horror film called “Talk to Me” is supposedly banned in Kuwait because one of the actors identifies as nonbinary and is a transmasculine (a female that identifies as a male). According to the news articles there isn’t any LGBTQ+ content in the film, and there is also no mention of the actor’s gender identity, it’s just banned because one of the supporting actors is trans. Source

I’m now curious if, moving forward, all movies that contain openly gay actors will also be banned in Kuwait. If X-Men or Lord of the Rings came out today would they both be banned because they star Sir Ian McKellen who is openly gay? There are a lot of gay Hollywood actors and directors so I’m really interested how this is going to play out.

Similar to what happened with Oppenheimer, there are currently rumors circulating that the Barbie movie is banned in Kuwait. As of now, that isn’t true and it’s just rumors.

According to a source of mine at the cinema, the Barbie movie is coming out in Kuwait at the end of the month, but it will be censored. My understanding is the scenes that will be censored are LGBTQ+ related and that the studio already approved the removal of those scenes last month. The only reason the movie was going to be banned in Kuwait is if Saudi Arabia decided to ban it, but yesterday according to @kuwaitnews, Saudi said the movie will be released so thats good news for us.

If everything goes according to plan, the movie will be released in Kuwait on August 31st. On a side note, with my pink colored blog I kinda feel like I need to be collaborating with Barbie somehow, maybe a Barbie launch day takeover or something, I need ideas!

Update: And it has now officially been banned. So if you’re looking to watch it you’re going to have to drive down to Saudi or head to Bahrain where the movie will be premiering today.

Late last week the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) issued a circular banning crypto payments, investment and mining.

Kuwait is currently one of the cheapest countries in the world to mine bitcoin. It is estimated that last year the cost of mining in Kuwait was just $1,400 per BTC when bitcoin was worth more than $40,000 at the time. But, the high power consumption of mining doesn’t seem to be the reason for the ban. According to an article on Yahoo Finance, the reason behind the ban is money laundering. Countries are required to put up guardrails to prevent money laundering but I guess it’s easier to just ban it completely.

What does this mean if you already own cryptocurrency? My best guess is that it would make transferring large sums of money from abroad into your account in Kuwait more difficult. If you transfer large amounts of money you need to explain where it’s coming from and I don’t think you can tell the banks anymore that they’re from your crypto investments. Maybe a banker can clear this up for us.

Update: according to a reader the circular doesn’t apply to individuals.

Contrary to rumors, Oppenheimer is not banned in Kuwait. Even though it’s not listed on the local cinema websites (as of this post), I just got confirmation that Oppenheimer is in-fact still launching this weekend.

If you want to book tickets for the first showings, according to Cinescape they will start selling tickets today before 3:30PM. So keep checking their website.

Update: Tickets are now on sale.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was meant to be released in the region on June 22, but last week it got banned in Kuwait and across the region. The reason behind the ban is due to the presence of transgender symbolism in the film, a “Protect Trans Kids” poster which appeared briefly during one scene (pictured below).

Whats interesting is that we’ve recently started seeing more movie bans and less censorship and that is supposedly due to the studios no longer allowing cinemas to edit their films. Disney and Sony have both recently not allowed Asian countries to edit out LGBT content so the only option cinemas have is to ban the films outright. It’s interesting because they previously would allow cinemas to edit out nudity or kisses, so it’s odd that they aren’t allowing LGBT content to be cut.

For those of you who were looking forward to watching the latest installment of the movie Thor at the cinemas here, you’re going to have to find another place.

According to Alqabas, the Ministry of Information has banned the screening of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ in Kuwait due to scenes that include gay characters. This shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore, and similar to previous movies that included gay characters, it’s mostly likely going to get banned in other neighboring countries as well.

The court has dismissed the lawsuit filed by a Kuwaiti lawyer against the MOC demanding the blocking of Netflix due to the Arabic movie Perfect Strangers. Phew… Source

The short answer is no, it’s not getting banned. Well, not yet at least. Yesterday an MP tweeted that a padel tournament was shut down because of inappropriate clothing and the mixing of opposite sexes which led to people thinking that new stricter measures were coming to the sport. But, according to @kuwaitnews, this isn’t true. The padel tournament didn’t get shut down and is still on.

So padel isn’t on the chopping block for now.

A few days ago Saudi Arabia banned the movie “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” for including an LGBTQ character called America Chavez. Some news sites published that Kuwait had also banned the movie but according to Cinescape, that still hasn’t happened. When I asked them for confirmation on the ban for my post they responded with the following message:

We have no knowledge of the mentioned

Kuwait’s Ministry of Information censors all movies / set age ratings / cut scenes / ban movies

Not Cinescape, we’re waiting for the ministry’s official decision regarding the movie during their working hours, from Sunday to Thursday

Thank you for contacting us

So although Kuwait will most likely follow the footsteps of Saudi and ban the movie, as of right now it isn’t official yet and the movie is still listed on the Cinescape coming soon page.

The largest comic convention in Kuwait, COMFEST starts today but sadly yesterday it was announced that cosplayers would no longer be allowed at the event.

Cosplaying is when people dress up as characters from a film, book, or video game and is a huge part of comic conventions (pictured above). But, due to pressure from an official, they were told not to allow cosplaying since it went against sharia law, public morals, and local customs.

So now we can add cosplay to the growing list of things banned in Kuwait.

Kuwait will ban a new film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s whodunnit “Death on the Nile” with a cast of Hollywood stars including Israeli actress Gal Gadot, authorities said Sunday. Source

Can someone with free time on their hands get the domain bannedinkuwait.com and just start listing all the things banned here so we can keep track? Thx.

It’s been a while since a movie has been banned in Kuwait but according to Al Jarida newspaper, the Marvel Studios’ film ‘Eternals’ has been banned in Kuwait. The newspaper didn’t give any reason for the ban but it’s most likely because of the character ‘Phastos‘ who is the first openly gay hero.

I really wasn’t interested in watching the film but after hearing of the ban I watched the trailer for it and now kinda want to watch it. I guess I’ll have to stream it when it eventually comes out on Disney+.

Another week another ban. Over the weekend there was a tragic incident on the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Causeway, a group of cyclists were riding in front of their support and safety vehicle when a car carelessly overtook the vehicle, hitting and killing a cyclist before fleeing the scene.

This was the second time a rider got killed on the bridge. In 2020 a similar accident occurred resulting in the bridge being open only to cyclists on Friday mornings. That turned out to be a temporary solution since Friday mornings reopened to cars again soon after.

Because of the death, a decision was made yesterday to ban all recreational activities on the bridge. Meaning no more cycling, running or any other form of activity anymore.

It’s a really frustrating situation. On the one hand, it is dangerous to ride bicycles on the roads in Kuwait, any road no matter how big or small. Drivers are extremely careless with most nowadays driving with their eyes down at their phones instead of the road ahead. But also, the bridge should have been built with cycling and running lanes similar to most large bridges around the world.

As expected, cyclists in Kuwait are upset with the ban and they have a right to be since there are no bike paths in Kuwait. The only place I’m aware of which is long enough and safe enough for bikes is the Gulf Road walkway, but a couple of weeks ago there were rumours that bicycles were going to be banned on that pathway due to them being “a danger” to pedestrians (Update on this below). So what options do cyclists have?

What’s worse is that the bridge has become a popular spot for illegal car races, and people still tend to dangerously park their cars on the side of the bridge to take selfies.

The whole thing is very upsetting and frustrating but I hope the authorities realize that cycling is a fast-growing sport in Kuwait and needs support.

Update: Rumors regarding the ban of bicycles on the Gulf Road pathway are not true or at least the info being shared got lost in translation. The illegal rental of bicycles is whats not allowed and only illegally rented bicycles are being impounded. Source

A couple of days ago the MOI announced a ban on riding electric scooters on roads. That makes total sense if it wasn’t for the fact that the reason people are riding their electric scooters on roads, is for the same reason you see people walking or riding bicycles on roads, we don’t have sidewalks.

I live in Salmiya where I’ve noticed a lot of people have started using scooters to commute around. I’m 100% sure they don’t want to be riding their scooters on the roads but are forced to due to the lack of sidewalks. Driving around any area of residential Salmiya and you’ll also notice people walking on the sides of the roads as well because there are no sidewalks. And this doesn’t just apply to Salmiya, if you head to other densely populated areas like Jabriya, Salwa, Hawalli, etc. you’ll also see the exact same situation there.

A lot of these people don’t earn a lot of money and with the pandemic right now most would prefer not to use cabs or busses. Add to the fact these same people who are being banned from using scooters to commute can’t even get driving licenses because of the laws in place that prevent them. Scooters are a great alternative for public transportation and it’s really unfair that due to poor urban planning, these low-income workers are now not allowed to use them to commute. It’s as if we keep looking for ways to make life even harder for them here.