Saudi officials have ordered for the arrest of a female rapper who featured in a music video for the song Bint Mecca, or Girl from Mecca. The police called the video offensive to the culture and traditions of the holy city, AlJazeera reported.
The video was released on Ayasel’s YouTube channel last week and featured her rapping in a cafe with some smiling children. The Saudi woman identified as Ayasel Slay was seen rapping about her pride in being from Mecca, home to the holy site of Islam, the Kaaba.
‘A Mecca girl is all you need, don’t upset her,’ Ayasel sang as she explained how a woman from Mecca surpassed all Saudi women in strength and appearance.
‘Your life with her will become a Paradise,’ she proudly sang. Wearing a scarf and sunglasses, she describes women as ‘sugar candy’ in the song.
In a tweet, the Mecca authorities said that the governor had issued orders of prosecuting Ayasel and the video production team.
The song attracted a large number of audience with extreme reactions. Some of them used the hashtag #You_Are_Not_Mecca’s_Girls pointing at Ayasel’s African origins.
‘I hope the punishment for this African woman will be imprisonment then deporting her back to her country,’ one of the Twitter users said.
‘Immediate deportation is the answer, in addition to holding every foreigner who claims to be from Mecca accountable,’ another said.
Several users also came out in support of her.
‘If anything needs to be deported, it is your racism, your arrogance, and your deep reverence for yourselves,’ one Twitter user retorted
Some even pointed at the hypocrisy and double standards of the part of Saudi authorities.
‘What a contrasting situation … [the government] invites singers and dancers to the country and no one objected, but this girl did this song, and now everyone is against her?’ Sultan al-Hamedi, a social media user asked.
In a similar incident that occurred in June 2018, a rapper identified as Leesa A released a video celebrating the country’s removal of a ban that prohibited women from driving. The video, however, recieved a good response.
Saudi Arabia introduced reforms in the past year, including giving women the right to drive and opening up the conservative kingdom for entertainment and tourism.
The reforms have, however, resulted in the detention of several women’s rights activists including Loujain al-Halthloul. Referring to the condition of human rights in Saudi Arabia as ‘abysmal’, Amnesty International said that the country is in the ‘grip of a sweeping crackdown against critics of the government’.
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