Saudi Women Mock Trump, Beg God to 'Rid Us of Men' in Gorgeous Viral Music Video

By Ellie Shechet  |  January 6, 2017 | 4:15pm
Entertainment

The music video for “Hwages,” roughly translated as “concerns,” has been viewed about 3.2 million times since its December premiere, and for good reason—directed by Majed al-Esa of Saudi production company 8ies Studios, the incredibly catchy video shows a trio of Saudi women in niqabs overtly mocking the dystopian patriarchy that keeps them from driving, dressing how they want, playing sports, or doing much of anything without the permission of a male relative.

The video, which is wittily, colorfully shot, begins with a jaunty male child driving a car full of shrouded adult women. With brightly colored sneakers and dresses peeking out from underneath their niqabs, the women skateboard, play basketball, dance, and joyfully knock over bowling pins decorated with men’s faces. “May men go extinct, they cause us to have mental illnesses,” they sing. Hell yeah.

The video also makes a few derisive references to Donald Trump, a sharp kick in the gut reminding American women that there’s not much protecting of our comparatively comfortable standing from rapidly deteriorating. One scene shows a cutout of Trump’s face above a podium that reads “House of Men,” anti-Hillary signs floating in front of him.

The Washington Post notes that the video is causing a stir in Saudi Arabia, with the country’s oldest newspaper praising it and noting that “the new generation of women is different from the past.” More than half of the kingdom’s citizens are under 25, CNN reports, and some appetite for change might be in the air; in December 2015, Saudi women were allowed to vote for the first time, though polling stations, like all other aspects of Saudi public life, were gender segregated.

 
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