There's a very strange story going around that Kuwait has banned the use of digital SLR cameras (the sort with interchangeable lenses) in public places, except when used by accredited journalists.

Now, I know that Arab governments have a propensity for banning the most unlikely things for the most absurd of reasons, but this one baffles me. Can it really be true?

For instance, why only digital SLRs? Why not the old type of SLR that uses film? (I still have one somewhere in a cupboard if any Kuwaitis would like to take pictures and don't mind waiting to get them developed.) And why only SLR cameras? Why not the small point-and-shoot cameras or the ubiquitous mobile phone cameras?

"This is another sad story of regional governments slapping a ban on every kind of technology they simply don’t want to learn how to deal with," Ahmad al-Shagra writes on the TNW Middle East website.

It's perhaps worth pointing out, though, that all the stories and comments about the ban (and there are now quite a number of them on the internet) are based on a single source: a report in the Kuwait Times on November 20. 

According to the paper, the Kuwaiti ministry of information, the ministry of social affairs and the ministry of finance all got together and decided "that photography should be used for journalism purposes only".

There has been no further explanation and, far as I'm aware, no official promulgation of the ban. That leads me to wonder whether the report in the Kuwait Times is correct (any clarification on that point would be gratefully received).

However, there is no doubt that photography is a sensitive issue in many Arab countries – for reasons of both privacy and security. The Saudis have previously tried to ban camera phones, without much success.

There also seems to be a general suspicion of photography in Kuwait. The Kuwait Times suggests this is because people have "so little exposure to art" – with the result that "a big black camera tends to worry people" and they "may wonder if the camera is being used for the wrong reasons".

The report quotes two amateur photographers on the problems they have faced taking pictures in Kuwait.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 26 November 2010.