The Wolf of Censorship

During the summer of 2011, I left Oman for my first trip back to Canada, to attend my aunt's funeral. Although the visit was very somber, I did get a chance to speak to my friends and family about my travels. Looking back, the very first question that people always asked me first and the most was, "How safe is Oman?"

Considering I had never witnessed any crimes or a single act of aggression towards another person in close to two years, I was surprised at why so many people would ask this. Oman was very safe. So safe that I was probably in more danger being in Toronto, than I was in Muscat.

But this brings up the question of, "Why do people think a peaceful and loving country such as Oman is so dangerous?"

The answer is simple. When it comes to the Middle East, everything is seen as all and the same. Because of media outlets like CNN, which glamourizes George Bush's mantra of, "either you're with us or against us," it paints the picture that the Middle East is one unit. All for one and one for all. And the reality couldn't be further from the truth.

When I started to work in Oman, I quickly learned that Middle East was a very segregated place. Whether because of religious or cultural differences, each and every country had their own set of identities, cultures and freedoms. Just because a women couldn't drive in Saudi Arabia doesn't mean she couldn't manage a multi-million dollar company in the United Arab Emirates. And more importantly, just because a woman couldn't drive in Saudi Arabia, doesn't mean that a woman in Oman agreed with this restriction.

So how do you gauge which countries are more conservative and or liberal when in the Middle East? After discussing this issue with a round table of friends, an interesting answer arose.

You go and watch a Hollywood movie.

It seems insane to think that a Hollywood movie could be a proper yardstick into the level of governance of a country. But if you think about it, it can easily be seen as the marker line that separates conservative values versus the desire to integrate modern culture into society. 

This was very apparent with the release of Martin Scorsese’s new film, The Wolf of Wall Street. Originally timed at 180 minutes, it was widely reported that the edited Middle Eastern version was cut down significantly.

But what was intriguing was that the more liberal countries cut less footage, while the  conservative countries cut more. The UAE was at 135 minutes, Qatar at 134, and Kuwait at 130. 

Although there was much debate on the film itself and the need for censorship, it was  interesting to see that the level of governance directly correlated with the amount of film footage cut.