UAE customs destroyed my game for being a cultural hazard
I am a local of the country and even though customs nonsense and absurd fees are nothing new to me, this have soured my entire experince with mail, and dark themed board games.
A while back I backed a game called Dark Blood. I knew from the get go it would have low appeal in my gaming groups since they are mostly religion oriented and many have children. But I thought at the very least the miniatures would be great for a cultist/evil themed dnd campaign if nothing else.
A while back, long after the game has fulfilled, I recieved a message from customs telling me that I will have to drive 50 minutes to come pick up the game even though I specifically pay for a delivery service. Once I have arrived the lady at the reception brought out the beaten up box the game contained and demanded I bring an approval from the ministry of culture before she can hand the box over to me. Her reasoning? The box contains satanic symbols that customs officer has marked a "cultural hazard". And if I fail to produce the approval within 30 days of it being marked (15 days have passed already before I recieved the message), then the box and its content will be destroyed. WHAT??
I knew from the start I would never be able to play or bring this game out in public but despite all my effort to reason with lady and office management and their ridiculous out of touch demands, nothing short of creating an incident at a govermental facility could even shake thier stand. Which I didn't think was worth it in a country obsessed and disturbed by constant religiously charged threats, especially over a BOARD GAME.
No one I knew in their years of boaedgaming and customs lore encounter a case like this. I personally knew people connected in ministries and none knew of any department or authority that handles permissions of cultural hazards. The office refused to give me any number or connection to the alleged department. After some time fussing they asked for the approval of the officer that marked the package instead, WHOM WORKS IN THE AIRPORT.
After some effort and connections to tracking down his number (becuase the office refused to give it to me) he remains un reachable on phone or physically. Some time has passed since and the game has long been destroyed without any kind of reimbursement becuase apprently I am the one who broke the law. So that's money for the game, shipping, customs and delivery just gone, piss in the wind.
So now no matter how intrigued by a game I am, if I think customs might have an opinion about it, I just stay away. I didn't cross my mind to post the incident then but the recent controversy of another satanic themed game reminded me of it.
Edit:
I appreciate all the sympathetic comments. The fact that religious zealots will impose their unjustified values on you is inevitable.
However what I don't appreciate are all the commenters that have seen this act as a justified opportunity to demonize my country's goverment, citizens and religion. This was not the point of the post and I will spend no further efforts on their hate speach. The only difference between what you precive as enlightened and the UAE is time. What you see is what yours once was and I believe it will get better over time.