3Censorship and Manipulation of Subtitling in the Arab World

Sattar Izwaini

Introduction

Censorship is a legal, administrative and socio-economic practice based on laws, rules, directives, guidelines, instructions, criteria and attitudes that has a direct impact on translation as an activity as well as on translators. It is usually exercised by a dominant, authoritative or powerful party, be it governmental, organisational, religious or corporate. Censorship can also be covertly practiced by translators themselves, whether as a response to the authority of another party in the form of having to abide by the expected requirements of institutional censorship, or out of familiarity with the target language (TL) sociocultural value system (Billiani, 2009; Gambier, 2002).

Cultural constraints and legal provisions in the Arab world play a role in the censoring and manipulating of subtitling into Arabic. Censorship in Arab countries usually prohibits activities that do not comply with moral standards and is particularly exercised in the media, both domestic and foreign productions. The language used in foreign programmes generally reflects the culture of the source language (SL) and is normally peppered with foul language and lexical items that can be culturally sensitive for the TL audience. The translator providing Arabic subtitles needs to be careful with offensive expressions as they can potentially offend if translated directly. Films, drama series and TV shows are subject to linguistic scrutiny in order to filter out culturally problematic expressions that would challenge prevalent sensitivities of religion, sex and social taboos. This is usually done by toning down or deleting strong language, sexual references and swear words. Researchers report that subtitles in Chinese (Chen, 2004, 2005; Fong, 2009; Lung, 1998), Finnish (Gambier, 2002), Latin American Spanish (Scandura, 2004) and Swedish (Mattsson, 2006) are mitigated in different ways to avoid offensive expressions. After investigating foul language in the Arabic subtitles of three films and one TV series, Mazid (2006) finds that euphemisms and deletions are frequently used to deal with such language.

The subtitles investigated here have been collected from mainly English language screen productions (US feature films and TV series) that were broadcast by Arab satellite stations located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), except for one which was shown by the Lebanon-based Future TV:

Arlington Road. 1999. Mark Pellington. USA

Adaptation. 2002. Spike Jonze. USA

Driving Miss Daisy. 1989. Bruce Beresford. USA

Heist. 2001. David Mamet. Canada and USA

Jalla, Jalla. 2000. Josef Fares. Sweden

LA Confidential. 1997. Curtis Hanson. USA

La Vie en Rose. 2007. Olivier Dahan. France, UK and Czech Republic

Nip/Tuck. 2003–2010. Michael Robin et al. USA

Showtime. 2002. Tom Dey. USA and Australia

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. 2008. David Fincher. USA

The Departed. 2006. Martin Scorsese. USA and Hong Kong

The Island. 2005. Michael Bay. USA

The Legend of 1900. 1999. Giuseppe Tornatore. Italy

The Matrix. 1999. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. USA and Australia

The Sopranos. 1999–2007. Timothy Van Patten et al. USA

The Witches of Eastwick. 1987. George Miller. USA

Troy. 2004. Wolfgang Petersen. USA, Malta and UK

These TV stations broadcast to all Arab countries and the translation agencies that usually carry out the subtitling for these channels are located in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE. The name of the translation agency is usually, but not always, stated at the end of the audiovisual production.

The censorship practices in three countries of different political, economic, social and cultural profiles – i.e. Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE – are examined here, paying special attention to the laws of these countries and their attitudes towards language usage on screen. In addition, manipulation patterns and their impact on the target subtitles are illustrated with real examples.

Censorship Context

This section provides an outline of the various factors that play a role in shaping the censorship context and lead to the manipulation of Arabic subtitles, namely cultural, legal, institutional and translator’s self-censorship.

Television is a household item in almost every home in the Arab world and consequently screen productions have a high viewership. TV in the Arab world is part of the public sphere and language use has to be decent even if the programmes are shown in late time slots. Translators have to look for ways to deal with culturally sensitive elements, taking into account the viewers and their values and expectations, and linguistically managing any problematic or taboo expressions. The three countries examined in this chapter are not necessarily consistent and homogeneous and what may be socially acceptable in Lebanon may be unacceptable in Egypt. However, the subtitles that translators produce are commissioned by TV channels that will normally broadcast them via satellite to all Arab countries. Therefore, translators need to consider what is culturally (un)acceptable in the Arab world at large.

Adhering to some cultural expectations may enter into conflict with the law. For example, Article 61 of the Emirati Printing and Publication Law no. 15 of 1980 stipulates that the Arabic translation of films ‘must be true to the dialogue’, which means that the instances of deletion and substitution widely found in the Arabic subtitles of many programmes broadcast in UAE-based TV channels actually violate this particular article.

Censorship in Arab countries is a crucial issue in the publishing and media sectors (Ginsberg & Lippard, 2010; Landau, 1958; Mostyn, 2002; Shafik, 2001). Egyptian censorship law bans offensive language related to religion, sexual innuendos and ‘obscene and indecent speech’ (Shafik, 2001: 33). In Lebanon, Article 12 of Law no. 104 prohibits the publication of reports, books, essays, pictures and news that do not comply with general morals. According to Article 57 of the UAE Printing and Publishing Law no. 15 of 1980, the showing of motion pictures is subject to the jurisdiction of the censorship committee, which may remove any improper scene that violates religious or social values.

Legal constraints are partly based on cultural values and even though the value systems are not identical in all Arab countries, and legal stipulations are diverse in their scope and purposes, censorship levels tend to be quite similar and there seems to be an agreement to avoid the use of offensive language. The subtitles that are produced by translation agencies are not only subject to the laws where the translation agency is actually located but also to the legislation of the country where the broadcasting channel is based. Whether broad and implicit or precise and explicit, censorship guidelines tend to result in the translator avoiding direct translation of offensive language. In some instances, the legal constraints are not too strict but rather loose and subject to interpretation, as in the case of the Lebanese law that talks about ‘general morals’. The translator’s knowledge and familiarity with the TL culture would prove crucial when it comes to recognising and dealing with such expressions, though translation agencies and TV channels will normally issue their in-house and freelance translators with guidelines that they have to follow. In this context, translators tend to internalise certain behavioural practices that ultimately lead to self-censorship as a form of negotiation with the social context (Chuilleanáin et al., 2009: 19). Self-censorship can be a byproduct of the translator’s intuitive or subconscious reaction to offensive language in order to accommodate the target culture standard of appropriateness.

The Manipulation of Subtitling

The outcome of dealing with culturally sensitive expressions while having to take into account cultural and legal constraints, institutional guidelines and censorship regulations is that Arabic subtitles are largely manipulated in an attempt to mitigate potentially offensive elements. Manipulation occurs in the areas of religion, sexual expressions and references, body parts, alcohol and drugs, swearing and other expressions of foul language (Izwaini, 2015).

References to religious figures are a sensitive area for Arab audiences, as it is considered profane to use the name of God or any of the prophets in an undignified way. God and religious figures are to be referred to with reverence and when the ST refers to them in a frivolous manner, they are never translated directly and other alternatives are found, as illustrated in Example 1:

Example 1

Down here, I am God.	أناالسيدالمطلق [I am the absolute master]
God-complex.	عقدةالسلطة [Authority complex]
God of war.	سيدالحرب [Master of war]
Goddess of wisdom.	سيدةالحكمة [Lady of wisdom]

In the Arab world, Jesus is a prophet who should be referred to with reverence and Egyptian law, for example, forbids his representation in films (Shafik, 2001: 34). Therefore, any direct mention of him is normally manipulated:

Example 2

Even if Jesus comes himself and asked me to do that.	حتىلوتلقيتالوحي [Even if I had got a revelation]
If you would like to have dinner with a personality dead or alive, who would it be? Einstein or Jesus?	آينشتاينأوقيصر [Einstein or Caesar?]

When the ST includes references to taboo subjects, the translator intervenes to avoid mentioning the culturally sensitive element, as shown in the instance below where the generalisation strategy has been resorted to:

Example 3

I raise pigs.

أربيالحيوانات [I raise animals]

Violent and explicit sexual scenes are irremediably subject to censorship, and they tend to be either completely removed from the films or linguistically modified, with sanitised expressions being used to tone them down into more acceptable language. Somewhat surprisingly, sexual references are not translated with standard euphemisms already used in the TL, such as يناممع [to sleep with], but rather they are subtitled by means of expressions that are even more metaphorical, such as يقيمعلاقة [to have a relationship], which has eventually acquired a sexual connotation in everyday language because of its recurrent use in subtitling. This expression is indistinctly used to account for a wide range of English phrases that belong to different registers, like ‘to have sex’, ‘to have an orgasm’ and ‘to get laid’, resulting in an unnecessary levelling out of the subtitles.

Other examples of sexual manipulation include translating ‘premature ejaculator’ as متحمسباكراً [excited early] and ‘horny’ into مندفع [agitated], which may lead to incoherent subtitles and confuse viewers because of their incongruous relationship with the rest of the conversation and the visual elements. Sensitive issues such as prostitution are manipulated by resorting to substitution and terms like ‘hookers’ get translated into فتياتسيئات [bad girls].

In one case when sex is explicitly mentioned, it gets substituted by مغازلة [flirting], and in another case where it is implicitly referred to, it is replaced by a phrase that lacks the sexual reference of the original, as illustrated in the answer given by the wife below:

Example 4

How he died? On top of me.

كانيبذلمجهودا [He was exerting effort]

Another example of the management of sexual references comes from the Lebanese channel Future TV. In the Swedish film Jalla, Jalla, a couple decide to enact a role play to excite their sex life and the man plays a neighbour who knocks on the door asking for some coffee. After two lines, the woman bluntly asks him Vill du komma in och knula? [Do you want to come in and fuck?], which is translated into هلتريدأنتمضيالوقتمعي؟ [do you like to spend time with me?]. Whereas the ST is an explicit invitation to have sex, using a vulgar word and bringing an abrupt end to the role play, the TT is a courteous invitation to spend some time together, although the sexual association is implicit. Changing the vulgar expression in the ST into a nice invitation in the TT not only results in a shift of register but also enters into conflict with the funny abrupt twist of the plot.

Words for body parts tend to be dealt with by resorting to generalisation. The culturally unacceptable ST element is thus manipulated into a general, more acceptable term as seen below:

Example 5

Ass	أسفلالظهر [Lower part of the back]
Machine guns do not add one inch to your dick.	الأسلحةلاتزيدمنرجولتك [Weapons will not add to your manhood]
She does not have a dick.	فهيليسترجلا [So-she is not a man]
If you touch my boobs.	إذالمستني [If you touch me]

The direct mentioning of alcohol and drugs is also circumvented, usually with the help of generalisation. Thus, ‘drugs’ is translated into ممنوعات [prohibited items] whereas alcoholic drinks tend to be subtitled into the superordinate شراب [beverage]:

Example 6

It is gin and tonic, nothing special.

إنهشرابعادي،ليسشيئامميزا [It is a usual beverage, nothing special]

The status of being drunk is usually conveyed with expressions in which the side effect of ingesting alcohol is highlighted, such as ترنح [being wobbly], or changing ‘she was drunk’ into لمتكنواعية. [she was not conscious].

Insults and offensive designations of people are also mitigated and their derogative nature is attenuated by resorting to words and expressions that belong to a higher, literary register and are not very common in everyday conversation, such as translating ‘asshole’ with أحمق [fool], or they are altogether deleted.

When the ‘f word’ is used as an intensifier to show anger, frustration or discontent, it is usually omitted, but if its deletion is problematic, because it stands as a single utterance in the ST, then it is usually translated into a pragmatically equivalent word such as تباً or اللعنة, both of which roughly mean ‘damn’. When dealing with swearing, an interesting point is that a literal translation can, on occasions, lead to a solution in which no swearing is present in Arabic. The naming of God or Jesus Christ is considered blasphemous in English-speaking cultures, whereas in their translation into ياإلهي [my god] they become a mere interjection.

Translation Strategies

Gottlieb (2004) suggests that subtitling is a form of foreignisation, a concept originally proposed by Venuti (1995: 20) in the following terms: ‘a foreignising method, an ethnodeviant pressure on those [target culture] values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text’. However, when it comes to dealing with taboo language, Arabic subtitling does not heed the source culture and its language, but rather it caters to the value system of the target culture in a clear instance of domestication.

However, since subtitling is semiotically foreignising – with the retention of the ST visuals and soundtrack – the euphemistic domestication of taboo expressions and references may in practice be ineffective if the audience’s knowledge of the SL allows them to recognise the true offensive nature of the dialogue exchanges, or when non-verbal channels display that nature, though some scenes may be excised if censors consider them too provocative.

Within the context of Arabic subtitling, translators deploy different strategies to filter out culturally sensitive expressions that may clash with the target culture morals and its legal requirements, including generalisation, substitution and deletion. Generalisation consists of choosing a general lexical item in the TL to account for a specific one in the ST, as in the examples dealing with body parts and alcohol. Substitution, which resorts to a less offensive partial synonym or a completely different expression, is used to deal with religious and sexual references and expressions. Deletion is the other strategy activated by subtitlers to do away with offensive expressions, especially swear words and lexical items that imply sexual activity. Table 3.1 summarises the scope of these strategies.

As previously mentioned, one of the outcomes of the persistent application of these strategies to avoid the offensive nature of the ST elements is the loading of certain Arabic words and expressions with connotations that they originally did not have. One such example is the word علاقة [relation], which has been deployed in Arabic subtitling to translate a myriad of words and expressions related to sex, thus gaining a sexual association that it originally did not have, and risking confusing viewers when used in its literal, asexual meaning in subtitling.

Table 3.1 Strategies to deal with offensive language in Arabic subtitles

Area	Translation strategies
Alcohol and drugs	Generalisation
Body parts	Generalisation
God and religion	Substitution, deletion
Sexual references	Substitution, deletion
Social designations	Substitution
Swearing	Substitution, deletion

The Impact of Manipulation

The manipulation of offensive terms results in the following four features found in Arabic subtitles: levelling out, register shift, failure to convey the pragmatic meaning and incoherence.

Arabic subtitles tend to be levelled out as a range of synonymous SL expressions that are considered culturally sensitive in the target culture end up being translated with the same battery of mitigated terms. For example, the word ساقطة [fallen] is used to account for both ‘whore’ and ‘hooker’, while قوام [figure] frequently replaces the English terms ‘boobs’ and ‘ass’. The adjective منحرف [deviating from the right and proper] is used as a one-for-all translation when dealing with a number of SL words such as ‘fetish’, ‘gay’, ‘homosexual’, ‘paedophile’ and ‘pervert’.

The toning down of the ST discourse brings along a shift in the register of the TT, whereby the original’s informality, explicitness, intimacy, rudeness and/or vulgarity shifts into formality, distance, implicitness and politeness in the subtitles. Example 7 contains some examples that demonstrate the marked shift taking place in language use, characters’ attitudes and their relationships to the rest of the cast:

Example 7

I love you like a son of a bitch.	أحبكمنأعماقفؤادي [I love you from the bottom of my heart]
I worked my ass to get there.	عملتبجهدكبير [I worked with great efforts]
You’re born, you take the shit.	عندماتولدتبدأالمعاناة [When you are born, suffering begins]

When subtitles are mitigated, they often fail to convey the pragmatic meaning of the original. According to Gambier (2002: 215), offensive French words are usually mitigated in Finnish subtitles, which end up lacking force and becoming exclamations of mild irritation. Generally speaking, manipulation practices at play in the TT lead to a totally different meaning from the original ST one. Curses, insults or swearing tend to be lost in the TL subtitles, thus failing to convey the intended pragmatic meaning of the original ST, be it humour, rudeness, irony or sarcasm, and failing also to produce the intended impact on the TL audience. On occasions, sociocultural identities are nullified by totally changing and normalising them, as when a lesbian introduces her partner as ‘my wife’ and the Arabic translation becomes رفيقتي [my female friend], which in turn has the negative effect of deflating the humorous nature of the scene. In some cases when the subtitler has opted for the literal translation of blasphemous expressions such as ‘God’ or ‘Jesus Christ’, the Arabic solution is devoid of the pragmatic meaning of the original swearing and it becomes just an exclamation, an expression of amazement and shock. Similarly, there is no rude tone, and as a result no pragmatic equivalence, in the translation of ‘stick this up your ass’ into تحملهذا [endure this].

The example from the Swedish film cited in the section ‘The Manipulation of Subtitling’ shows that the funny dimension of the dialogue exchange, which is very much dependent on the blunt usage of the vulgar expression, is not conveyed by the translation as a result of the substitution strategy used. Similarly, in Example 8, the obliteration of the explicit sexual reference, which in Arabic becomes general praise to compliment a woman for her qualities, has a negative impact on the coherence of the scene in which it is uttered:

Example 8

You’re the best blow job in town.

TT: أنتابرعامرأة فيالعالم [You are the most skillful woman in the world]

On occasions, viewers may get confused as what is said does not make sense from a logical point of view, or does not relate to what they see on the screen. When words like ‘God’ or ‘Christ’ are used disrespectfully or have been stripped of their divine provenance in the ST, subtitlers tend to choose the word القدر [destiny] as a translation alternative as, in Arabic culture, God governs destiny. However, the adoption of this translation solution can lead to incoherent subtitles such as the ones below:

Example 9

A sad song why Christ died.	لماذاماتالقدر [Why destiny died]
Do you think God knew what he was doing when he created women?	هلتخالونأنالقدركانيعرفماذايفعلحينخلقالنساء؟ [Do you think that destiny knew what it was doing when it created women?]

Conclusion

Watching TV in the Arab world can be seen as an activity pertaining to the public sphere rather than the private one, in which several stakeholders participate with their own agendas. Censorship, whether governmental, corporative or due to a translator’s self-censorship, plays a substantial role in the shaping of Arabic subtitles. Not only is subtitling subject to the laws governing translation in the country where the language service provider is located but, given its potential to reach most of the nations in the Arab world, it also has to consider possible censorship barriers in other Arab countries.

In the case of audiovisual translation into Arabic, adherence to the value system of the TL culture, the need to accommodate certain cultural sensitivities and to use sanitised language in films and TV programmes has preponderance over the content and form of the original text, which leads to the manipulation of Arabic subtitling and results in the toning down and transformation of vulgar and obscene SL into decent and well-mannered expressions in the TT. The manipulation patterns show that professional subtitlers resort to different translation strategies that help them avoid the direct rendition of certain terms by choosing non-offensive TL lexical items. Such manipulative practices have the effect of projecting quite a different image of the original dialogue and SL culture and, as observed in the examples cited above, talking openly about God, prophets, body parts, sex, alcohol and drugs, as well as swearing, are the main linguistic areas affected. The end result of this type of interference materialises in the levelling out of the subtitles, the shift in register, the failure to convey the pragmatic meaning of some utterances and the diegetic alteration of perfectly coherent scenes in the original production into rather incoherent ones in the subtitled version.

Acknowledgement

This chapter reports on research carried out thanks to a grant (number FRG13-3-07) from the American University of Sharjah.

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