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Queer (Im)possibilities: Alaa Al-Aswany’s and Wahid Hamed’s The Yacoubian Building

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LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media

Abstract

When Wahid Hamed’s cinematic adaptation of Alaa Al-Aswany’s novel, The Yacoubian Building (2002), was up for review, “112 members of the Egyptian parliament demanded several sex scenes be cut out”; scenes which depicted homosexuality were deemed “immoral” and could “damage the country’s image” (Cole 2009). Egypt, as a nation, was to reinforce its appearance as heterosexual. The parliament then selected a committee of film reviewers to decide which scenes would potentially homosexualize Egypt’s image; however, a strange turn of events occurred: not one single scene was censored. Wahid Hamed’s adaptation remained intact.

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© 2012 Stephanie Selvick

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Selvick, S. (2012). Queer (Im)possibilities: Alaa Al-Aswany’s and Wahid Hamed’s The Yacoubian Building . In: Pullen, C. (eds) LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373310_9

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