The rhythm of empowerment: female rappers from Morocco to Gaza

Thank you for bringing badly needed attention to an under-reported phenomenon: how women in the Arab world are finding a new vehicle through music to openly express their hopes, fears, dreams, and frustrations. It is shopworn to discuss how those voices have been muzzled for years or decades, and thus it is critical to highlight how the courage of women, combined with their creativity and use of technological media, enables those voices to slowly but triumphantly emerge from the shadows of discontent in this day and age. Hopefully, hearing these voices will manifest in a community-led public policy discourse that will augur the implementation of specific policies designed to address these women's needs and wishes that have been ignominiously ignored for far too long.

I would be curious to know if institutions like the World Bank, or the civil-society promotion groups that traverse in their orbit, have developed a strategy for either finding a conduit or establishing a link between the expression of these ideas and the instruments for change through public policy. In other words, beyond the recommendations of the World Bank flagship report on jobs in the Middle East, can these organizations encourage, amplify, and institutionalize those voices themselves by funneling these musicians into advisory bodies that allow them to become agents of change outside the walls of parliament?

I agree with the author's assertion that hip-hop represents the empowerment of the disenfranchised in the Arab world. While this is obviously true elsewhere too, in this region it is particularly relevant because women there are often excluded from direct or meaningful participation in the movements for social change, or more precisely, those movements do not focus specifically on alleviating the injustices that plague them.

Dear Amina,

I came across your article on a blog forum where some people were discussing it and whether the fact that arab women are rapping about sensetive issues will lead to some sort of change.

One guy insisted that it will lead to nothing as it is the old people that lead the countries in the mmiddle east and they don't listen to rap. I argued against him (as did most others), sayin that true, it is the old people that rule --- for now. But they must have realized that they can not ignore the opinions of the young... the fact that people more openly talk about issues that did not used to be discussed is in itself an achievement and the seed of further change. I like the example of the supportivbe husband lying to his own mother about his working wifes whereabouts! It sais a lot!

I myself live in the US but I know for a fact that most of my young male cousins and relatives in the region are so much more open-minded than their fathers AND mothers! They want an independent, smart and active wife! There is often alot of talk of men being the problem... good that you mention that also women (the older) have a role in trying to keep the young female generation back. shokran

Amina, thank you for this blog, very interesting and glad to see it has created further discussions related to female employment in the Arab world!

Lotta, I was glad to see that someone brought up the topic of women with disabilities and your interest in learning about the additional challenges they face. I have worked on these issues in the MENA region for many years and I will share my insights below. I will also provide some recommendations for the international community.

Women with disabilities are often neglected by the society and policy makers. Of course, this neglect comes as a result from the overall cultural tradition of stigma practiced against women, persons with disabilities, and thus women with disabilities, since the reason for oppression is obviously doubled.

Despite few serious efforts here and there by disability organizations in MENA, women with disabilities are still not represented fully and equally at levels of leadership and engagement with decision making. Of course, counter efforts for an inclusive opportunities for disabled women by governments and international development are almost absent as well. Thus, we yet find that rights of disabled women to employment, education, health care, accessibility …etc. are completely not recognized.

As a result of this situation, data on women with disabilities in the labor market in MENA does not exist. In fact, this is not surprising, as disability data in MENA does not exist unfortunately. Governments have not conducted any projects for creating data on disabilities in either field whether education, employment, health care or even in relevance to demographic sensuses. Thus, it seems a matter of default not to encounter any data on disabled women in general or with regard to jobs in particular. Moreover, families, due to the general stigma against disabled women are not willing to share any information about even the existence of disabled women among their household members.

Considering this dark situation about the status of disabled women in MENA, more serious efforts for inclusive development should be done. International organizations should allocate further funding for the implementation of projects and programs that would target the transformation of such negative cultural stigma against women with disabilities. Furthermore, disability organizations should conduct more intensive empowerment efforts for women with disabilities as well, particularly by giving them equal opportunities for participating in leadership programs and decision-making. Last but not least, socio economic rights for women with disabilities should be fully granted in disability rights laws and national policies. Thereby, employers should be targeted by nationwide campaigns for creating and insuring equal, accessible, and safe opportunities for disabled women in the labor market.