A music video featuring a group of niqab-clad women skateboarding, playing basketball and driving bumper cars has become a YouTube sensation.
According to The Washington Post, the video titled "Hwages" (which loosely translates to concerns) was released on December 23. It is a talking point in Saudi Arabia and was put together by Saudi singer Majed Al-Esa of Saudi production company 8ies Studios.
A similar video went viral across the Arab world in 2014, but this one has a political message, the most obvious reference being the shot of all the women climbing into the back of a four-wheel-drive as a young boy takes the wheel.
In Saudi Arabia, women are unable to get a driver’s license and driving is mostly prohibited.
Aside from lyrics like “may all men sink into oblivion”, and the women wearing brightly coloured sneakers and fashionable dresses under their niqabs, US president-elect Donald Trump also makes an appearance, well, sort of. The Trump character (a masked Saudi man) leads the video’s “House of Men”.
The almost three-minute video has earned praise from some parts of the establishment and criticism from elsewhere. Responses from the wider global social media community have been mostly positive with one Twitter user @Rawan_as claiming it as “the best video I’ve seen all week”.
Hwages has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube in just under two weeks.
mhealy@thenational.ae
