Having started the day with the news of the death of Sabah at age 87, it seems only appropriate to check in with the current generation of celebrity superstar Lebanese divas. Haifa Wehbe has been in the news at least three different ways in the past week or so.
Egypt's State Radio announced that her songs will no longer receive airtime on State Radio because she is "unlicensed," invoking a 1934 law requiring singers to undergo a voice test. Resurrecting this old rule may be an attempt to provide cover for the banning the day before of the music of Hamza Namira, who is a critic of the regime. The ban applies only to State Radio, not Private stations.
On the other hand Egypt's Administrative Court reversed a ban on the showing of her movie Halawat Ruh; Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb banned the film last spring without its having even been submitted to the Censorship Board. He argued that it was obscene.
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