{"id":10009,"date":"2017-02-01T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/02\/01\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral\/"},"modified":"2017-02-01T22:04:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T22:04:00","slug":"saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Women Stunt Hard (And Dis Men) In A Music Video Gone Viral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a class=\"colorbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/02\/01\/512895766\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\">NPR Staff<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/02\/01\/512895766\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2017\/02\/01\/hwages-2_wide-c99c382ba1083436a2a15a45f9f8970f33ca5f30-s1100-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2017\/02\/01\/hwages-2_wide-c99c382ba1083436a2a15a45f9f8970f33ca5f30-s1200.jpg\">Enlarge this image<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>The music video &#8220;Hwages&#8221; has become a viral sensation in the Middle East. <strong>YouTube<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><span>YouTube<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>There&#8217;s a music video that&#8217;s been racking up millions of views for the last few weeks \u2014 and it comes from Saudi Arabia. NPR Music&#8217;s Anastasia Tsioulcas describes the scene:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s this amazing setup. You see women wearing full niqab \u2014 so they&#8217;ve got their faces covered, their hair covered, clad in black, it seems. And then they burst out in super-colorful outfits and doing all kinds of silly things, playing basketball and riding bumper cars,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p>In a conversation on <em>All Things Considered<\/em>, Tsioulcas tells Ari Shapiro how the visual, inspired by a lesser-known, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_0WSRfu-ygs\" target=\"_blank\">low-budget clip<\/a> from 2014, has become a viral sensation. Hear their conversation at the audio link, and read an edited version below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ari Shapiro:<\/strong> <strong>I<\/strong> <strong>don&#8217;t speak Arabic, but I know a good tune when I hear one.<\/strong> <strong>What do the lyrics say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>[embedded content]<\/div>\n<div><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Anastasia Tsioulcas:<\/strong> So, that&#8217;s where the real interest in this video is. The name of the song is &#8220;Hwages,&#8221; which means something like &#8220;concerns&#8221; or &#8220;obsessions.&#8221; And the lyrics are pretty subversive. They start out, &#8220;May men disappear, they give us psychological illnesses \/ None of them are sane, each one has an illness.<\/p>\n<div><span>Article continues after <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/about-npr\/186948703\/corporate-sponsorship\" target=\"_blank\">sponsorship<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Basically saying, by definition, &#8220;Men are mentally ill.&#8221; A bunch of Saudi women singing this.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Absolutely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And what&#8217;s amazing is how much this as really taken off across the Middle East: It&#8217;s become hugely, hugely, popular. Who are the people behind this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know who the women are, but the video director is named Majed Alesa. He has become this <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=soMOZdR5Z8g\" target=\"_blank\">viral video machine<\/a> in Saudi. He now has this platform and he can amplify his message to his millions and millions of followers.<\/p>\n<p>So, at one point in the video, there&#8217;s a cut-out of Donald Trump that rises on a proscenium behind a stand that says half in Arabic and half in English, &#8220;The House of Men.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Has there been much pushback to it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You know, it&#8217;s funny \u2014 I haven&#8217;t seen a lot of official pushback. You see YouTube comments in both English and Arabic saying, &#8220;This is not a women&#8217;s movement, don&#8217;t judge on this, our values are still really important to us.&#8221; But you also see a lot of very positive feedback.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout Saudi Arabia, throughout the Gulf, throughout the entire Middle-East, this is getting a lot of play and a lot of conversation. And you can dance to it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/02\/01\/512895766\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\" class=\"colorbox\" title=\"Saudi Women Stunt Hard (And Dis Men) In A Music Video Gone Viral\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/02\/01\/512895766\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/02\/01\/512895766\/saudi-women-stunt-hard-and-dis-men-in-a-music-video-gone-viral?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=world\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2017\/02\/01\/hwages-2_wide-c99c382ba1083436a2a15a45f9f8970f33ca5f30-s1100-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2017\/02\/01\/hwages-2_wide-c99c382ba1083436a2a15a45f9f8970f33ca5f30-s1200.jpg\">Enlarge this image<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>The music video &#8220;Hwages&#8221; has become a viral sensation in the Middle East. <strong>YouTube<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><span>YouTube<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>There&#8217;s a music video that&#8217;s been racking up millions of views for the last few weeks \u2014 and it comes from Saudi Arabia. NPR Music&#8217;s Anastasia Tsioulcas describes the scene:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s this amazing setup. You see women wearing full niqab \u2014 so they&#8217;ve got their faces covered, their hair covered, clad in black, it seems. And then they burst out in super-colorful outfits and doing all kinds of silly things, playing basketball and riding bumper cars,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p>In a conversation on <em>All Things Considered<\/em>, Tsioulcas tells Ari Shapiro how the visual, inspired by a lesser-known, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_0WSRfu-ygs\" target=\"_blank\">low-budget clip<\/a> from 2014, has become a viral sensation. Hear their conversation at the audio link, and read an edited version below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ari Shapiro:<\/strong> <strong>I<\/strong> <strong>don&#8217;t speak Arabic, but I know a good tune when I hear one.<\/strong> <strong>What do the lyrics say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>[embedded content]<\/div>\n<div><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Anastasia Tsioulcas:<\/strong> So, that&#8217;s where the real interest in this video is. The name of the song is &#8220;Hwages,&#8221; which means something like &#8220;concerns&#8221; or &#8220;obsessions.&#8221; And the lyrics are pretty subversive. They start out, &#8220;May men disappear, they give us psychological illnesses \/ None of them are sane, each one has an illness.<\/p>\n<div><span>Article continues after <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/about-npr\/186948703\/corporate-sponsorship\" target=\"_blank\">sponsorship<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Basically saying, by definition, &#8220;Men are mentally ill.&#8221; A bunch of Saudi women singing this.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Absolutely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And what&#8217;s amazing is how much this as really taken off across the Middle East: It&#8217;s become hugely, hugely, popular. Who are the people behind this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know who the women are, but the video director is named Majed Alesa. He has become this <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=soMOZdR5Z8g\" target=\"_blank\">viral video machine<\/a> in Saudi. He now has this platform and he can amplify his message to his millions and millions of followers.<\/p>\n<p>So, at one point in the video, there&#8217;s a cut-out of Donald Trump that rises on a proscenium behind a stand that says half in Arabic and half in English, &#8220;The House of Men.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Has there been much pushback to it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You know, it&#8217;s funny \u2014 I haven&#8217;t seen a lot of official pushback. You see YouTube comments in both English and Arabic saying, &#8220;This is not a women&#8217;s movement, don&#8217;t judge on this, our values are still really important to us.&#8221; But you also see a lot of very positive feedback.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout Saudi Arabia, throughout the Gulf, throughout the entire Middle-East, this is getting a lot of play and a lot of conversation. And you can dance to it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}