Netflix’s first Arabic original series Jinn sparks uproar in Jordan

Netflix’s first Arabic original series Jinn has sparked an uproar in Jordan as it was shot in the kingdom. Jordan’s top prosecutor demands cybercrimes department to suspend the broadcast of series because of ‘immoral scenes’.

Released a week ago on the streaming website, “Jinn” is a supernatural drama about teenagers who encounter good and evil genies during their school trip to the ancient city of Petra.

Though series comprising of five episodes debuted worldwide with much fanfare but resulted in controversy in Jordan. Many Jordanians, took to Twitter to express their anger and call for its censoring.
The cause of uproar is reported to be the two scenes in which the character played by a female actor, Salma Milhis, kisses a boy from her class.

Following the show’s release on Netflix, Jordan’s top prosecutor has demanded that the cybercrimes department at the Ministry of Interior to take “immediate necessary measures to stop the broadcast” of the series because it includes “immoral scenes”.

According to the website of the Jordanian army, the cybercrimes unit was attempting to pull the show from Jordanian Netflix.

The controversy has led Jordan’s Media Commission to issue a statement. Which said that it had no control over the production of the series and its censorship role was only applied on series and films that were broadcast on television or theatres in Jordan.

However, Netflix Middle East has denounced the controversy on Twitter as a “wave of bullying”.

In a statement issued on Friday, the streaming service said the show deals with “universal themes” that “can be viewed as provocative.” A spokesman said content removals were rare but that Netflix complied with official requests.