LONDON: Theaters in Belgium have been accused of patronizing Muslims by using “Ramadan-friendly” labels to advertise their plays.
About 20 venues across the capital Brussels have started to use labels warning Muslim theatergoers of nudity, sex or violence in performances, and to encourage them to attend cultural events during Ramadan, the Times newspaper reported on Friday.
The move has prompted criticism from Flemish nationalists, who argued it could lead to “woke” self-censorship, with culture minister in the Flemish Parliament Jan Jambon slamming the labels as “paternalistic.”
A leading figure in the New Flemish Alliance, which is not part of Belgium’s coalition government but controls the powerful and wealthy Flanders region, Jambon wrote a letter to Brussels’ cultural centers, in which he said: “Such religious interference in cultural-artistic practice seems to me very problematic.”
He continued: “It is about warnings to the public, but it can also lead to a form of self-censorship, it also testifies to a rather paternalistic view of the cultural participant.”
Jambon said that while well-meaning, the policy could give rise to more division in society and was “at odds with the ambition of this Flemish government to combat segregation.”
The NVA party leader and mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, recently published a book — “Over Woke” — in which he said too much political correctness could “kill Belgian culture.”
However, the head of the scheme, Barbara Van Lindt, said a similar idea had been successful in France and denied any “woke agenda” or censorship.
“They are warnings, with the sole purpose of preventing people from having an unpleasant experience,” she said.
“In Europe, such labels have been experimented with for some time, but under no circumstances should they curtail artistic, creative freedom.”
