Two months ago, a video titled Hwages (concerns) showcased a different side to Saudi women – one we rarely get to see. Now, it looks like that message is inspiring women in other parts of the world as well.
Hwages features a group of charismatic women skateboarding, playing basketball, driving bumper cars and much more. They did all that while wearing brightly colored sneakers and fashionable dresses underneath their traditional black niqabs.
The video – directed by Majed Alesa – quickly went viral, garnering over 7 million views at the time of writing.
It then made international headlines, inspiring thousands around the world.
The message reached Indian director Sasha Rainbow who just released an Indian music video titled Alpha Female. In the new video, a group of young Indian female skateboarders rock their skills in an effort to shatter stereotypes. Sound familiar?
Here's how the two videos compare:
Saudi women in 'Hwages' are judged by men for going against the tide
Indian women in 'Alpha Female' suffer just the same
Traditional clothing hasn't stopped women in Saudi from having some fun
Indian women rocking their hot pink saris and sequins as they take the streets
Saudi women aren't afraid of anybody, staring boldly into the camera
Indian women stare boldly into the camera too, with strength and determination
In Saudi Arabia, women are discriminated against in nearly all aspects of public and private life.
A legal code influenced by a fundamentalist interpretation of Sharia law puts women in an inferior position to men.
But, changes are happening and Hwages is only the most recent example of that. Just in the past couple of years, the kingdom amended a number of laws in an effort to empower women. These include opening municipal elections to female candidates and making women's verbal consent to marriage mandatory.
As for India, a glance at the local media reveals the range of abuse suffered by the country's women on a daily basis. On a political level, women hold less than 12 percent of seats in parliament in India, compared to a global average of 23 percent.
Anti-women protests are still a thing. Just this week municipal elections in Nagaland, were postponed after a coalition of male-dominated native tribes protested the government's decision to secure 33 percent of seats in the state’s urban civic bodies for women.
According to statistics, 848 women are harassed, raped, killed every day in India.
Here's hoping Alpha Female inspires more women to stand up for their rights!