I HAD an eccentric history teacher in high school, who came to class one day and wrote two words on the board. The first was ‘WAR' and the second a certain four-letter word. He asked the class, consisting of 13 and 14 year-old kids, which word they considered worse. Well, of course everyone pointed to the second one. But ‘war' is the taking of human life, he said, while the other word is about the making of human life.

It was inevitable that a few backward-minded individuals were going to complain about the World Press Photo Exhibition, being held at Seef Mall until September 8. Among its themes are death, famine, murder and poverty, including graphic pictures of body parts and disfigured victims of war. But the four images which caused offence were taken down because they depicted bare flesh (they were originally covered with black tape, which visitors removed).

Perhaps if the controversy was about the show in general, including the violence, I wouldn't have as much to say about it. But the objection centred around the nudity only, with Capital Municipal Council chairman Murtaza Bader going on record as saying: “We have nothing against the exhibition or the other pictures – only those four portraits.”

Don't get me wrong. I am almost always against censorship and I don't think the violent imagery should be removed either. It could be argued that these photographs should have been set up somewhere people could choose to visit rather than in the busiest place on the island. But I personally don't agree; the whole point is that people need to see this exhibition in its entirety to get a healthy dose of reality and be challenged to think a little bit about their world. Exhibitions like this are rare in Bahrain and should be supported. It was a brave move on the part of organiser Miracle Graphics and the mall management but I'm disappointed that they had to give in to a few closed-minded dinosaurs.

It seems that after incidents like the 2003 riots sparked by singer Nancy Ajram's concert and the so-called devil worshipper rockers (just kids playing music really), fewer people are willing to take chances with anything remotely controversial. This is unfortunate because cultures need to be taken to the edge sometimes lest they become stagnant. Things once considered shocking eventually become normal to society's consciousness if practiced often enough.

It says a lot about a society that is so desensitised to violence and destruction but suffers a panic attack every time someone flashes a little skin. Thousands of bloodthirsty teenagers watch violent films at movie theatres every weekend and not a peep is heard because the supposedly ‘offensive' stuff, basically anything to do with sex, is taken out. Studies show that violence on film leads to more aggressive behaviour. On the other hand, a pair of bare breasts never hurt anyone.

tariqk1976@hotmail.com 

tkhonji@yahoo.com

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Two of the censored images appear below....to view all the photographs go to www.worldpressphoto.nl