Averting the Gaze

Censoring Women’s Zar Dance Performances on Kuwaiti Television

Bibliographic Data

ID11222982
AuthorsNajat Alsheridah (0000-0002-5944-7742, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume56
Issue2-3
Pages112-125
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDance Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0149767724000214
OpenAlexW4413908716
LanguageEN
References cited14

In Kuwait, women are prohibited from dancing in public; however, dancing in private spaces is allowed. As a result of government censorship, socio-cultural values, and commercial marketability examples of women dancing in Kuwaiti film and television are exceedingly rare. However, recently, Manaf Abdal’s steaming television series Mohammed Ali Road (2020) included representations of Kuwaiti women performing a zar dance. Although the scene was shown in other countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the scene was censored by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information. Following the censorship of the zar dance featured in Mohammed Ali Road , the actress, Hessa Al-Nabhan, who performed the dance, noted that while she respected the decision to censor the scene, she felt that the dance “has nothing to do with ethics or moral issues” (in Alelah 2020). Her father, a well-established Kuwaiti actor, Jassim Al-Nabhan, publicly expressed that the decision to censor the zar dance scene in Mohammed Ali Road was “a disappointment” and stated that, “not showing [the dance] means that we are not showing the historical events accordingly with credibility. It’s a scratch for the history” (Al-Marsd News 2020)

Art · Censoring (clinical trials) · Dance · Gaze · Statistics · Visual arts · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Islamic Studies and History · Mathematics · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Psychology · Socioeconomic Development in MENA

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