Saudi Arabia, a country with a huge equality gap between the men and women in the society. However, things are starting to change or at least the women are trying to bring the change. Saudi Arabia has been ruled by and under patriarchy which does not care about women’s rights, their way of living and even their preferences about certain things.
A Saudi Arabian director, Majed Al-Esa, shook his country with a new music video which has some of the most radical and incredible lyrics that the women in the video want to dedicate to men. ‘Hwages’ which means ‘Concerns’ in English, is the new feminist anthem for Saudi Arabians with almost 2.5 million views within 2 weeks.
Watch The Full Video Here:
(Video Courtesy: Youtube)
The women in the video can be seen in floral outfits with colourful sneakers and their Burqa, doing all sorts of things that are considered untraditional in their country. They ride skateboards, scooters, dance, play basketball and simply enjoying and living life. However, it would be considered immoral and bad by many who can’t see women living freely. All of this is done while they call out the sick men of their society for being the creatures that they are. They also mocked the bizarre culture of not letting women drive by making a young boy drive the car while they are sitting in the back seat.
The video also features newly-elected President Donald Trump who is accompanied with a caption of ‘House of Men’. His appearance signifies the win of sexism in recent times because men all around the world are somehow scared of letting the women live or even run their country.
Saudi women are calling for equal rights … through an epic music video 🎵 pic.twitter.com/vvSv0aNBWz
— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 4, 2017
The lyrics of video are constantly repeated and they can roughly be translated into “If only God would rid us of men”, “May all men disappear from the Earth”, “They give us psychological illness” and much more. All these lines portray a strong hate towards the men that these women have for them, as they have been under scrutiny and rule of these men for far too long.
Saudi Women have to live under a set of bylaws, and state-sanctioned discriminatory policies, of the male-guardianship system where they are restricted to have choices until and unless they have a permission from a male guardian, ie. a father, brother, husband and even a son. In short, the women in Saudi Arabia are not recognised as full legal adults by their country. However, many Saudi Women are speaking and protesting against it and this music video is definitely a strong brick in the foundation. They even created a petition which gathered massive success and support, online from many women. While some of these women from the country itself, some belonged to different parts of the world, but they all had one agenda and that was for equality among the sexes and the right to live on their own terms.
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4 January 2017
Jyotsna Amla