M.I.A’s Video “Bad Girls” shows Muslim women who are supposedly Saudi Arabian, doing male activities and breaking the laws by driving. This Video has been the subject of much controversy as many people feel that the video is cultural appropriation as they think that she uses the Muslim women as backdrops. However I disagree about this, for the past three years I had been living in Qatar, which borders on Saudi Arabia. Qatar was considerably more liberal that Saudi Arabia, women are allowed to drive, and go out in public without wearing an abaya (depending on the family). Where there was still considerably inequality present it was miles ahead of Saudi, where despite your religious beliefs you were forced to wear an ayaba failure could result in jail or in the case of expats deportation. Also women were banned from driving, the punishment for disobeying could be death depending on who you were, in recent years much debate has been opened on this topic due to pressure from the west, however the monarchy is reluctant to make changes. When taking this into consideration M.I.A’s video takes on a new meaning, the phrase “live fast die young, bad girls do it well” takes on a new meaning. These women who chose to disobey the oppressive laws of their society despite the risks, are truly bad girls, in the truest sense of the phrase. Therefore the video is political statement in favor of women’s rights all over the world, also considering her work for other aspects of humanitarian rights. It is clear that she is an artist who wish’s to use her art to make a statement about the injustices in the world. It is also important to note the oppression of women in Muslim countries is men manipulating the Quran. And that Islam itself has nothing against women. Another slightly unrelated point I would like to bring up is that wearing the abaya is not oppression being forced to wear it is however. Many westerners view the abaya as a symbol of oppression and feel as though by forcing this women to take it off we liberate them. That however is false many Muslim women chose to wear the abaya or hijab as respect for their religion and being forced to take it off would be extremely offensive to them. Just because someone chooses to wear an ayaba, niqab, hijab or burka does not mean that that are not liberated or any less of a feminist. In conclusion M.I.A’s video is a powerful political statement, against the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia. Also if you want a analysis of the lyrics to the song rap genius has a fairly helpful one.
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I agree with you in this post, I think that the political statement made is clear and in the video. The rising power of women is still oppressed and people have a false understanding of what it means to have rights. To have true equality is to be non-judgmental to the freedom of choices that people make, in the case of the women’s clothing, it is their right to choose what they are comfortable in even if the world has a false perception of the clothing being worn.
I’ve got to say, I didn’t see it the way you did when I first watched the video. Instead, I just saw M.I.A. using these Arab women as props in her video to create a provocative piece of art. After reading your post, I could definitely see how it was more political than I first thought. I can see now how M.I.A. is fighting the norms of gender roles and using rebellious young Arab women to bring out feminist ideas. I think your experience of living in Qatar is pretty cool because it gave you a whole other viewpoint on how the the society runs in the Middle East. I’ve lived in Vancouver my whole life and my ideas of the Middle East were not at all as comprehensive as they should have been. Also, the behind-the-scenes of the video is interesting in seeing exactly how M.I.A. was influenced by the awesomeness of rebellious women and young adults. https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_535680&feature=iv&src_vid=2uYs0gJD-LE&v=m6-sNTOhYnU
Thanks for posting this Tamasyn- I love that you have a perspective I’ve never heard before, having lived in a country like Qatar. I like that you touched on the west’s theory that de-veiling Muslim women is liberating them, and the erroneous logic behind it. My Religious Studies class spent a third of this semester discussing Islam and along with it the west’s often hegemonic interaction with the Middle East and people of other religions. I was shocked to learn that western interventionists have been preaching on the virtues of liberating Muslim women by removing their veils since the Victorian era, a time at which western women, really, fared no better than their sisters anywhere else in the world. I too really appreciated that M.I.A. was able to rock the scarf and her feminism at the same time, challenging a foolish opinion that Muslim women are somehow not feminist simply because of their head wear.