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Saudi Arabia censors CD covers
by Scott Gilbreath ~ March 29th, 2009
Susie, an American woman in Saudi Arabia, has made the shocking discovery that vice cops with the Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CVPVP) censor CD covers. She recently bought her son a copy of Kate Perry’s One of the Boys.
When he opened up the CD, we were both astonished however. I hadn’t noticed when I bought it, but the tightly sealed plastic wrap packaging had been removed and had been replaced with a clear plastic resealable envelope-type wrapper. The front cover of the little booklet tucked inside serves as the front of the CD cover. This little booklet insert has photos of the artist, a list of the songs and lyrics, as well as the artistic credits.
Here’s what the front cover looks like before and after Saudi CD cops got through with it.
Click on images for enlargements. See Susie of Arabia’s blog for the rest of the censored and uncensored cover art.
Saudi Arabian CD cops went to a lot of trouble to remove the plastic wrap and take the jewel box apart so they could carefully colour Kate Perry’s excessive exposed flesh with red and black markers.
One suspects, however, that the CPVPV agents were so distracted by Ms Perry’s bare legs that they completely forgot to read the song titles and lyrics. The second song is the notorious (and fatuous) “I Kissed A Girl”. How did that slip past the CD constabulary’s black markers?
h/t: Global Voices
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