Saudi Allows Cinemas To Reopen 2018

[emmie]

wow that's a step on the road to freedom, or will they just show propaganda films.
wonder if women will be allowed in?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42308121

[ToraToraTora]

the problem is though that once they've cut out all the bits that may offend Islam, most films are the length of a Looney Tunes cartoon!

[emmie]

ttt
you could be right, but perhaps like having a Muslim council for women but exclude them, they will have only men cinemas.

[EDDIE51]

Women will only be allowed in if they have a male family member with them as an escort. They can't even leave the house without a male family member as an escort. I lived as a resident in Saudi for 3 years and women were not even allowed into a restaurant unless they had a male family member with them.

[youngmafbog]

So long as each small step is in the right direction then it is good.

It is unreasonable to expect them to change their culture overnight and to be honest with some of the things you see on a Sat night in a UK Town you could forgive them for thinking that is not the way they want to go.

[aelmpvw]

don't imagine there'll be any kissing on the back row

[emmie]

maybe so, but can't help wonder what women have to do to get equal status with men in that place.

[youngmafbog]

Emmie, for the minute I would suggest they keep quite and allow the chipping at the male block to continue.

If they started anything like the suffragettes did then all that would happen would be a massive clampdown and back to square 1 (or worse).

They live in the 15C, we live in the 21st. It took time for our attitudes to change it will take time for theirs. Hopefully not quite so long but it is not likely to be in our lifetimes or even our children's.

[emmie]

you are probably right, but i feel for women around the world who suffer massive oppression at men's hands.

[youngmafbog]

And so you should. I dont like what I have written but I am being pragmatic about the situation.

[Gromit]

Everybody streams films today, no one except yoof goes to the cinema. They might as well say they are re-opening magic lantern shows.

[Gromit]

The UK and US are falling over themselves to portray the new Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a ‘reformer’ and ‘moderniser’ which is why our media has been peppered with good stories about the evil country.

But he is just as corrupt as the rest of them.

We buy into the sham because it makes it easier to justify a close relationship with the country that is the source of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

They might be opening a few cinemas, but they are also still teaching Wahabism, the most intolerent and extremist form of Islam. Until that changes, we should be weary of them.

[EDDIE51]

It is significant because at the moment no form of public entertainment is allowed in Saudi. Shops or restaurants can not even play background music as it is classed as entertainment. So from that point of view it is a major step forward, it will mean that there are places where people who are not family members can meet in public. There will still be restrictions but it's a start. When I was there there were campaigns against supermarkets as people were using them as meeting places. The religious police wanted only the old style shops with a sales counter, shoppers one side male shop owner the other.

[douglas9401]

What next? Mecca Bingo? :-)

[sapelesam]

Probably show live executions for those that can't get there in person.

[ToraToraTora]

I note it says "reopen" so when in the past was entertainment allowed?

[naomi24]

There is an IMAX theatre in Khobar and In the 1970s there were many movie theatres in Saudi Arabia. More information here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Saudi_Arabia

I suspect films for public viewing are selected very carefully indeed.

[Gromit]

^ Return of the Jhadi ?

[mikey4444]

I think we should be welcoming this new event.

Saudi is a backward country, and has been living in the dark ages for many years, so in order for it to be changed to a modern civilised country, its going to take lots of tiny steps, not a revolution. I think its all down to this new Crown Prince....he should be given all the encouragement that that there is.

[emmie]

baby steps perhaps but i don't hold out that much hope in the light of the fact women are still being killed.

[EDDIE51]

Gromit Yes they will stream films in Saudi, but that is not the point. The point is that people will be allowed to socialise in public at the cinema. At present there is no place at all where females can meet other women or other non family members to chat and socialise.
Men have always been allowed in coffee shops and restaurants on their own and can meet other men.
Douglas9401 Mecca as a trading name of an entertainment venue was banned many years ago. Mecca is the most holy city of Islam and you can not have people using the name for a gambling and drinking den. Christians are not even allowed to enter the city limits of Mecca it is for Muslims only, there is a bypass around the city for them, it is popularly called 'The Christian Bypass'
naomi, Khobar or Al Khobar was the nearest town to me when I lived in Saudi , I went there shopping at least once a week. No cinema or even an old cinema then 1982 to 1984.
We had 2 cinemas on the Aramco camp in Dhahran where I lived.
Films were just not worth watching though, any form of contact between a male and a female was cut out, not just sexual contact , any contact even a touch of the hands was cut out.Any sort of violence or aggression was cut out as well. As you can imagine most films were very short and did not make sense after all the censorship.
Newspapers were censored as well , any mention of sex ,or Israel was cut out, we got papers imported but by the time they went on sale they looked like a paper doily that you put a cake on , full of holes. If you went to the library to look at a map in an atlas, the page of the middle east map had an Israel shaped hole cut out of it.