ISRAEL: Female Palestinian rappers take on male music scene

Record ID: 397379

  • Title: ISRAEL: Female Palestinian rappers take on male music scene
  • Date: 23rd January 2012
  • Summary: ZARKAWI AND TATOUR SIGNING INSIDE STUDIO DJ ALLA' SHEHADA RECORDING MUSIC SHEHADA GIVING INSTRUCTIONS
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel, Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVA7JWZ1V6IIZ6W617OGK48WL9YF
  • Story Text: Two young Palestinian women from the Israeli-Arab city of Nazareth are storming the music scene in the once male-dominated world of hip-hop.
    Female rappers 'Damar' are now a well established band and say they set a positive example to other girls in the relatively conservative society of Arabs in Israel.
    "It was not easy to take our first steps because we were young girls and making rap songs. It was not easy for people to understand us because we were young. There were critics who said that we are girls - what can we do? In the end we sent our message, though we are girls, young and living in a male society," rapper May Zarkawi told Reuters Television.
    'Damar', which in English means 'Destruction', is made-up of two teenagers, 16-year-old May Zarkawi and 17-year-old Amani Tatour. They formed the band four years ago under supervision of the 'Wlad Elharra' rap troupe and DJ Alla' Shehada.
    Zarkawi explained that their success was the fruit of their hard work despite a lack of funding.
    Amani Tatour said that their mission was to show their experience growing up as part of Israel's Arab minority.
    "It is natural that our message is a political message because we live in the historical Palestine, under occupation. We live with racism which we want to express and tell the people about. But also we have other subjects like women rights, our generations. What can we do and how we can we affect society?" Tatour explained.
    The two girls formed the band after meeting at school in the northern city of Nazareth in 2009, they discovered shared interest in politics and music.
    "Also we speak about school, we criticize everything around us as two young ladies looking around," said Tatour.
    Both girls prefer to be identified as Palestinians living in Israel rather than Israeli Arabs.
    Unlike Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, Arabs who live in Israel have Israeli citizenship, though many complain of discrimination manifested by poorer funding for infrastructure and education.
    The 1.6 million Israeli-Arabs make up 20 percent of Israel's population.
    There are other bands from the Israeli-Arab community who rap about the Palestinian struggle, but what makes 'Damar' unique is the gender and young age of the two girls. They say they intend to carry on making music and spread their political message.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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