Female Saudi Rapper Faces Arrest Over Music Video

The Saudi Arabian government ordered the arrest of female rapper Asayel Slay on February 22. Mecca’s governor, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, criticized Slay’s music video “Bint Mecca” or “Girl of Mecca” in a tweet. Al Faisal wrote that her video "insults the customs of Mecca," and he used the hashtag “They're_not_the_girls_of_Mecca.” As of March 1, Slay reports that she has not been detained by authorities.

In the music video, Slay appears in a coffee shop alongside young girls who are dancing. She raps about proudly being a woman from Mecca: "A Mecca girl is all you need/Don't upset her, she will hurt you/With her...Your life with her will become Paradise.”

This controversy over Slay’s music video comes amid a supposed period of social reform in Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has branded himself as a young reformist, and he recently lifted several socially oppressive laws. He lifted the ban against allowing Saudi women to drive, encouraged artists to perform in the kingdom, and removed a law requiring women to obtain permission from a male guardian before travelling abroad.

However, bin Salman also has authoritarian tendencies. He has presided over the arrest and detainment of numerous human rights activists and has denied them rights after they were sexual harrased in jail. The indefinite arrests and detainments ordered by bin Salman has caused the U.N. Human Rights Council to publicly rebuke the kingdom.

Slay, like other Saudi artists, was the target of similar government pressure. After al-Faisel’s tweet, the hashtag “They're_not_the_girls_of_Mecca” began to trend. Users on Twitter criticized her video, labelling it extremely disrespectful.

Many of the tweets are racially charged—Slay, and the dancers in her video, are of African descent. One user commented, “I hope the punishment for this African woman will be imprisonment then deporting her back to her country.”

Another user commented, “Immediate deportation is the answer, in addition to holding every foreigner who claims to be from Mecca accountable.” One replier added, “Including all Somalis living here.”

Slay claims the government’s problem with the music video was not the content itself, but instead her lack of filming permits. She told Al Arabiya that “the video was not a problem, it was an administrative issue of not obtaining the right permits... I didn’t know I had to get the permit.” She plans to shoot another music video shortly.

Regardless, Slay’s case represents a larger divide in Saudi society. While the country is reforming rapidly under bin Salman’s rule, many citizens remain socially conservative. As bin Salman has shown repeatedly, he is willing to tolerate social liberalization, but only as long as it does not threaten his regime. Saudi women might be able to enjoy freedoms long overdue, but they still live in a country that is willing to take them away.