New women?s magazine in Middle East

New women?s magazine in Middle East -
Jasad (meaning ‘body’ in Arabic), is a new women’s magazine launched in Lebanon this month. Aimed at ‘encouraging free discussion of the body’ it is set to be controversial at the very least. The handcuffs in the masthead suggest the restrictions already in place on this topic. Opinion is divided, but the magazine is being sold in sealed envelopes (in Lebanon at least) to get around censorship. See the website for more information. Good luck to them.

Talking of censorship, when I was in Dubai last year I bought a copy of GQ in a newsstand in Dubai airport. I hadn’t realised that it is someone’s job there to go through the pages of western magazines with a large black felt tip and cover up anything that could cause offence. Nearly the entire magazine was covered in scribbles – and that was just the ads!



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