Originally published in News 24
A Saudi video mocking the kingdom’s unique ban on female driving has gone viral, featuring a male performer singing “no woman, no drive”, an adaptation of Bob Marley’s famous song.
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Nearly 3.5 million people had seen the 4:15-minute video by Monday, two days after the adaptation of the reggae legend’s No woman, no cry had been posted on YouTube. (By the time of posting this item on Gateway News on Friday morning the views have risen to nearly 8,4 million)
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“Say I remember when you used to sit, in the family car, but backseat,” sings Hisham Fageeh, a Saudi who introduces himself as an artist social activist, dressed in traditional white thawb cloak and chequered red headgear.
The video that sarcastically tells women not to consider getting behind the wheel was posted on the day set by female activists to launch an new campaign to defy the kingdom’s ban on women driving.
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At least 16 women were stopped by police while at the wheel on Saturday.
They were fined and forced along with their male guardians to pledge to obey the conservative-kingdom’s laws.
Fageeh goes on to mock a claim by a Saudi cleric that driving would hurt women’s ovaries and bring “clinical disorder” upon their children.
“Ovaries are safe and well, so you can make lots and lots of babies,” he sings.
“In this bright future, you can’t forget your past, so put your car key away,” the song continues.
Women who in the past have defied the ban, which is not even enshrined in law, have run into trouble with the authorities.
Defiance
In 1990, 47 women who got behind the wheel in a demonstration against the driving ban were stopped by the authorities.
In 2011, police arrested a number of women who defied the ban and forced them to sign a pledge not to drive again.
Saudi women are forced to cover from head to toe and need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry.
The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival this month introduced Fageeh as an up-and-running stand-up comedian who performs in Arabic and English.
On his YouTube account, “HishamComedy”, Saudi-based Fageeh has posted many of his earlier videos, including 16 episodes of “Isboiyat Hisham”, or Hisham Weeklies, including some reflecting on the lives of Saudi students in the US.
“A simple contribution by me and my colleagues on the occasion of the” women driving campaign, Fageeh wrote on his Twitter account, on 26 October, referring to his latest release.
Thank God there is some young muslim that has the courage to expose those ridiculous Islamic law.
God bless you , you are fantastic.
Won’t he get flogged for poking fun at the clerics?
I suspect he is not based in Saudi.