Smashing Stereotypes! Saudi Women DJs Strike High Note In Empowerment, Make People Groove To Their Beats

DJ Leen Naif has made a name for herself in the Saudi music circuit. The 26-year-old woman DJ from Saudi Arabia has taken the country by storm, which historically offered very few opportunities to females.

Over the last few years, many women DJs have come up and performed at grand events like the Formula 1 Grand Prix and Dubai Expo.

Termed as an unthinkable phenomenon a few years ago, DJing has become a relatively common sight in the country's main cities. Currently, the women DJs turn few heads as, gig after gig, they make a living from what once was previously considered merely a time pass.

"A lot of female DJs have been coming up," Naif said. Over time, she said that this has made audiences "more comfortable" seeing them on stage.

Naif and her friends embody two major reforms championed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, new opportunities for women and expanding entertainment options, particularly music, which was once discouraged under Wahabism, a rigid Sunni version of Islam, NDTV reported.

The possibility that DJs would be welcomed at public events, let alone that many would be women, is something "we didn't expect" until recently, said Mohammed Nassar, a Saudi DJ known as Vinyl Mode.

DJing Was Considered Just A Hobby

"It was just a hobby before to express themselves in their bedrooms. Now we have platforms, and they could even have careers. So it's amazing," Nassar added.

Naif was introduced to electronic music by one of her uncles when she was a teenager, and she instantly started wondering whether DJ'ing was a possible job for her.

While her peers dreamt of careers like doctors and teachers, she knew she didn't have the patience for it. "I'm a working person, not a studying one," she said.

Challenges And Roadblocks

Unlike other female DJs, she had the support of her parents and siblings. However, she had some challenges as well. Several years ago, a man came up to her mid-performance and said she was "not allowed" and asked, "Why are you doing this?"

His complaints got Naif's set shut down, but she doubts the scene would play out the same way today. "Now I bet the same guy is going to stand first in line to watch my performance," she said.

Naif has benefited from official attempts to trumpet Saudi Arabia's new entertainment-friendly image, which human rights groups often criticise as a distraction from abuses.

Her nomination to play at the Saudi pavilion of Expo Dubai 2020 gave her an international audience for the first time. But the work at home supports her day-to-day, earning her 1,000 Saudi riyals (around $260) per hour.

Other women DJs have encountered more resistance. Lujain Albishi, also known as "Biirdperson", started experimenting on DJ decks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her family disapproved when she started talking about DJ as a profession, preferring her to strive to become a doctor. She stuck with it anyway, enhancing her skills at private parties.

In 2021, she got her big break when she was invited to perform at MDLBeast Soundstorm, a festival in the Saudi capital Riyadh that drew over 7,00,000 revellers for performances, including a set by superstar French DJ David Guetta.

The experience left her "really proud". "My family came to Soundstorm and saw me on stage. They were dancing and happy," she said.

Both Naif and Albishi said they believe female DJs will remain fixtures in the kingdom, though their reasoning varies.

For Naif, women DJs succeed because they are better than males at "reading people" and playing what they want to hear.

Albishi thinks there is no difference between men and women once they put their headphones on, and that's why women DJs belong. "My music is not for females or males," she said. "It's for music-lovers," she concluded.

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