Sex and The City 2 banned in Dubai

Fresh on the heels of a British woman being jailed and deported from Dubai, for kissing a man in public, comes the latest in scandalous headlines that highlight the cultural differences between countries.

The UAE’s National Media Council (NMC) have banned the screening of ‘Sex and The City 2’, despite the fact that certain scenes depicted in the film are supposed to have taken place in Abu Dhabi (the scenes were in reality, filmed in Morcco).  The NMC actually blocked the filming of some scenes which the producers wanted to set in Dubai and Abu Dhabi because the content of the movie itself was considered salacious and scandalous.  The NMC have also been offended by the fact that the scenes are ‘set’ in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but not actually filmed there, as the suggestion is that one of the characters has visited the countries as part of her quest for sexual liberation.

Western films that are screened in the UAE are often heavily edited to remove any section that is considered to be against local laws, such as those containing kissing, sex and even bad language.