Manama, Bahrain - Bahrain's Islamist lawmakers are campaigning for a ban on a planned show by Haifa Wahbe, a Lebanese singer known for her suggestive moves and tight dresses in music videos, the website of al-Arabiya television said Monday. The lawmakers from the Islamist Asala bloc said they would work with other parliamentary blocs to scrap Wahbe's show planned for Wednesday, according to the website.
Wahbe is one of a crop of new female Arab singers perceived as sexually provocative in the largely conservative Arab world.
In their Western-style music videos watched by huge audiences on popular satellite television channels, sultry female singers perform suggestive dances, wear revealing clothes and stage trysts with good- looking men with bare chests.
This is quite provocative in many Arab countries, which restrict kisses in soap operas and bed scenes in films.
Bahrain's conservative lawmakers threatened even to deport Wahbe because of her "nudity" and "base" performance.
The Lebanese belle is no stranger to controversy. Her appearance in a short, skin-tight rain-soaked red dress in a music video caused a furore among a wide section of the Arab television audience.
Trying to quell the controversy, the organizers of Wahbe's show said the singer would be modestly clad when she performs to mainly Bahraini families on Wednesday evening marking May Day.
Protestors in Bahrain tried to shut down a concert by Nancy Ajram, another controversial pop singer, five years ago.
Some calls were made in Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Kuwait to prevent Wahbe and her sexy colleagues from performing in those countries.
