Saudi Arabia may lift decades-long ban on cinemas

Saudi Arabia government says it will probably open cinemas early next year, after 35 years of ban in place on the 7th art in movie theaters.

The Ministry of Culture and Information said that after a hiatus of 35 years, it might show the green light to cinemas early next year.

Extremist Wahabbi Muftis, whose ideology was picked by the Takfiri terrorist group DAESH (ISIL) in its atrocities against world people, forced the closure of cinemas in the 1980s, claiming they were un-Islamic. The Saudi government has long executed executions, whether of Saudi nationals, or civilians in neighboring countries such as Yemen.

The grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh recently claimed in an interview that motion pictures may broadcast shameless, immoral, atheistic or rotten films.

The pressure on movie theater runners has slightly been relaxed recently as a couple of screenings signal the possibility of such removal of the barriers.

Artists argue that in the age of YouTube, it is ever more difficult to enforce the Wahabi ruling vis-à-vis the nation’s will.

In the rich nation with poor people, Saudi women have been banned from driving, a monarch rule that is expected to break in June, following social pressures in the monarchy.

To relieve the nation’s dissatisfaction, the government says it is considering to allow women to drive as of June, and is for the first time promoting concerts and cultural events to broaden entertainment options for the two-thirds of Saudi people who are under the age of 30; this is while the monarch is seeking to impose austerity measures on the nation.

MF/MF