SISTER FA AND MAYAM MAHMOUD USE RAP TO ADDRESS OPPRESSION AND INEQUALITY
JUNE 9, 2014 – I ran across the stories of two courageous women that use poetry, rap and activism to fight against oppression of women in their home countries. The first that caught my attention was a Senegalese rapper Sister Fa who fights against the horrible practice of FGM (female genital mutilation) and it is personal, because as a little girl she was forced to undergo the horrible procedure. WomensENews.org has a great article up by Anne K. Ream about Sister Fa that has excerpts from her book, “Lived Through This”. Here she is below with her song, “Milyamba” below (in Arabic only, sorry)
[youtube]http://youtu.be/nvUot_AljCs[/youtube]
The other female rapper that caught my eye is Mayam Mahmoud, who is being called Egypt’s “first veiled rapper”, for she wears her hijab while performing. Normally when a girl wears a hijab she puts many activities like singing and dancing aside. It seems she wants to make a statement by wearing the hijab while performing, and she also wants to counter the men rappers that are blaming women for things and she wants to straighten that out and use her poetry and rapping to give the woman’s side of the story and fight sexual harassment. Watch a BBC News video report on Mayam here. Watch Mayam perform (in Arabic only, sorry) below.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/f2FaRTVMg0A[/youtube]
