Lebanon Reverses Persepolis Ban
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud Film Allowed in Country
Mar 28, 2008
Lebanese authorities announced on Thursday that they will allow the controversial animated film Persepolis to be screened in that country, after widespread protests that the government was kow-towing to Iran and Shi'ite clerics.
The department of general security, a subsidiary of the Ministry of the Interior, said that it had "decided to authorise the film's distribution in Lebanon" after the outcry, which included other members of the Lebanese coalition government.
The department stressed to Agence France-Presse that "personal, political or confessional motivations" had nothing to do with the original ban.
Did Hezbollah Influence Persepolis Ban?
On Wednesday, General Wafiq Jizzini, chief of general security, said that Persepolis would be banned because State censors claimed that the film was anti-Iranian and anti-Islam.
"The office that handles censorship matters informed me in their report that the film attacks Islam and the Iranian regime, and this could spark tension with Iran," Jizzini told Agence France-Presse at the time.
"I can go back on my decision, I respect freedom of expression," he continued. "But given the current political crisis in Lebanon, this is not the time to add fuel to the fire."
Some claimed that General Jizzini's decision was less motivated by a desire to contain ethnic tensions than his alleged close ties with Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and the Shi'ite theocracy in Iran. A group of Iranian Revolutionary Guards helped found the organization during the mid-1980's, and Iran publicly supports Hezbollah.
Iran had also pressured film festivals in other countries not to show Persepolis after it had won the Jury Prize in Cannes last May. Iran called the film "Islamophobic" and believed it was part of a plot by the French and American governments to destabilize the country. Despite (or perhaps, because of) the Iranian government, Persepolis headlined several festivals and received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.
"It is clear that . . . General Wafiq Jizzini is close to Hezbollah and he doesn't want to allow such a movie, which he believes gives an image of Iran as being worse off than it was before the Shah," one official, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP on Wednesday.
Many other people, including Culture Minister Tareq Mitri, claimed the ban was hypocritical and there was no intelligent reason to censor the film. Walid Jumblatt, a Druze leader and member of the current ruling coalition, denounced "this cultural faux-pas that allows a security service to evaluate artistic and cultural works."
Bassam Eid, production manager at Circuit Empire which is distributing the film, claimed the ban was useless since there were many pirated copies of Persepolis circulating in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah is based out of this section of Lebanon's capital city.
Jizzini denies that Hezbollah influenced his decision to prohibit Persepolis.
Fun Fact: Lebanon has never held an official survey of Lebanon's religious groups, for fear of upsetting its delicate political balance. However, the CIA's World Fact Book (2007 edition) claimed that the country was 58.7% Muslim, 40% Christian and the other 1.3% distributed over 17 different faiths. Muslims are equally divided between Shi'ites and Sunnis.
