Nubian fury at 'monkey' lyric of Arab pop star Haifa Wehbe
Dr. Sir John Howard, AC, WSCMoF
One of the Arab world's biggest pop stars has provoked a torrent of outrage
after releasing a song which refers to black Egyptians as monkeys.
Haifa Wehbe, an award-winning Lebanese diva who has been voted one of the
world's most beautiful people, is now facing a lawsuit from Egyptian Nubians
claiming the song has fuelled discrimination against them and made some Nubian
children too afraid to attend school.
The row has cast fresh light on the position within Egyptian society of Nubians,
who are descended from one of Africa's most ancient black civilisations and yet
often face marginalisation in modern Egypt.
Wehbe, a 35-year-old model turned actress and singer, is widely regarded as the
Middle East's most prominent sex symbol and has been no stranger to controversy
in the past. Her skimpy outfits and provocative lyrics (one previous hit was
entitled Hey, Good Little Muslim Boy) have earned her the wrath of religious
conservatives and forays into the political arena have also sparked debate,
including her very public praise for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during
the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
The latest accusations of racism came after the release of her new song, Where
is Daddy?, in which a child sings to Wehbe, "Where is my teddy bear and the
Nubian monkey?".
Wehbe has since apologised profusely for the offending lyrics, insisting they
were penned by an Egyptian songwriter who told her that "Nubian monkey" was an
innocent term for a popular children's game. That hasn't stopped a group of
Nubian lawyers submitting an official complaint to Egypt's public prosecutor and
calling for the song to be banned.
"Everyone is upset," said Sayed Maharous, 49, the Nubian owner of a coffee shop
in Cairo. Adul Raouf Mohammed, who runs a nearby store, agreed. "To compare a
human being to an animal is insulting in any culture. She has denigrated an
entire community of people, and now some of our children are afraid to go into
school because they know they will be called monkeys in the playground."
The row over Wehbe's song has highlighted a growing sense of communal identity
among Nubians in Egypt, a country where the government has traditionally
promoted a very monolithic brand of nationalism, sometimes to the exclusion of
religious or ethnic minorities.
Despite breaking through into the cultural mainstream – several Nubian novelists
are well-regarded within Egyptian intellectual circles and Nubian singers such
as Mohammed Mounir are among the most popular in the country – Egypt's estimated
two million Nubians remain largely invisible on television and film, except as
lampooned stereotypes.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ipvdBnU8F8
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cornholio
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wrote:
We all know how controversial women end up in islamopig shitocracies.
I
imagine getting life insurance will be difficult for her now.
Dr. Sir John Howard, AC, WSCMoF
Of course. She'll be done away with fairly quickly.