Friday, June 16, 2017

Arabs and uncovered meat

How they censor in Arabic countries.

That brings back memories. I used to read a Pakistani magazine in Saudi Arabia. It had news, opinions, jokes, stories, entertainment articles, sports summaries, etc.

Far too often, someone in the magazine would get the "sharpie burqa" treatment. I would be reading along some article and suddenly come across blacked out text. Upon turning the page, one would, for example, see a story about female tennis players with burqas! Some government toadie had used a marker to blot out the arms and legs of the player. The ink would bleed through and make the text on the reverse unreadable.

What's amusing is that in the early 90s, the Saudi government had lifted the ban on satellite dishes. Finally, the residents of Arabia could watch foreign tv shows without censorship. Can you guess the most popular program?

Baywatch.

Anyway, here's one of the most egregious examples of the censorship:

Taylor Swiftly Covered

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