A revolution against the movie Ashab, Wala Aaz

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Our colleague, the prominent environmental expert Khaled Muhammad Al-Hajri, said Kuwait was not among the top ten, twenty, thirty, forty or fifty countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index. Instead, it ranked 73rd after Jamaica, Vanuatu, Cuba, Namibia, Rwanda, Dominican Republic, Botswana, Barbados and other unexpected countries. This is a matter of disgrace for the government like no other.

In the field of education, we fell by several positions to reach the last position, with poor Arab countries and countries with the hellish problems from the Arab Spring topping us.

In the field of art, we were the pioneering country in this region and were preceded by Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, which are basically countries that are advanced in the field of art.

The value of Netflix has now exceeded the value of what most of the Arab countries possess (including oil countries) in terms of savings, property, shares and reserves. Most of the world’s population watch movies on Netflix, including the residents of the State of Kuwait, even me, who are plagued by many decision-makers.

The last movie I saw on Netflix was the movie Lawrence of Arabia, in which the prominent English actor Peter O’Toole had starred. It was also the first foreign movie in which the prominent Egyptian actor Omar Sharif had starred. I had been wanting to watch this movie for a long time because I was a small boy when it was released.

I am a subscriber to Netflix, which costs an amount equivalent to about KD 5 per month. This amount is deducted from the bank account of the subscriber to watch what they desire including foreign movies, and even Arab series and movies. When you play a movie, you will first be presented with a warning phrase stating that the movie has some scenes and dialogues that would not be suitable for anyone under the age of 13 or 16 or 18 years.

A few months ago, an acquaintance advised me to watch a new French movie that had caused outrage. I watched the film which showed a feast that was hosted by married male and female friends. In the movie, they agreed to play a game where everyone surrenders their phones to the centre of the table, and any messages, emails, or calls received on anyone’s phone would have to be shared with everyone else. As the game progresses, more secrets and scandals begin to unravel such as whether the person is homosexual, or have illicit relations, etc.

The movie ended on that, and we forgot about it until we watched the Arab movie Ashab, Wala Aaz (The Dearest Friends) with Egyptian and Lebanese actors. Unfortunately, this version of the movie did not provoke anything in our souls, because these things have been happening behind closed doors and in dozens of homes in the Arab and Islamic world for centuries.

Therefore, we were shocked when a lawyer filed a lawsuit to ban Netflix in Kuwait because it showed this movie, which contained several supposedly immoral scenes. This is illogical.

The platform does not show movies for free. A subscription fee must be paid for it by each subscriber. Hundreds of movies are available to watch depending on the wish of the subscriber. There are historical, military, social and other films. Therefore, why do we focus on the disgraceful films that reveal to us the afflictions that occur behind our backs and behind closed doors?

It is not permissible to punish millions of subscribers and their personal desires for what they want to watch just because a movie that revealed part of the afflictions of our countrymen was shown.

Islam has guided not to punish someone for the mistake of another. In other words, no one must bear the burden of another. This is an unacceptable violation of the principle of personal freedom stipulated in more than one article in our constitution.

In conclusion, we would like to say to our young lawyer colleague: May God guide you and grant you success, God willing. You ignored all the corruption in our country, which was the first in many fields except for the field of strictness and the imposition of the DAESH-Taliban ideology that was abandoned by the source country, where no one raised any objection or uproar over the screening of the movie, which exposed one of the afflictions of our societies.

 By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli

Former Minister of Oil

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