Egyptian society is full of unrevealed stories of women who are oppressed, forced into living in inhumane circumstances, and subjected to different types of violence and assault. These are the stories that “Bent Al-Masarwa” female band aims to voice through their songs. Believing that music is their only way to express their thoughts and anger towards a society oppressive to women, “Bent Al Masarwa” band is launching a fund raising campaign aiming to produce their second Album.
The campaign aims to collect 12000$ in order to introduce the album, titled “Mazghuna” to light. The album consists of 10 songs which describe Egyptian women in conservative societies, and the conditions they have to live under.
Through 3 workshops that the three band members conducted in villages in Upper Egypt, Marina Samir, Mariam Samir and Esraa Saleh heard hundreds of stories of Egyptian females who have been subjected to different forms of oppression from poverty and sexual assaults to child marriages.
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The campaign started August 6th, and so far it managed to collect more than 2000$ with the hope that the whole amount will be collected before it ends at September 17.
Each song tells the story of an individual woman who wanted to share her story with the band.
"It didn’t take much of effort of the ladies to open their hearts and share their shocking stories, leading the three women into a storm of overwhelming ideas that lead into 18 final songs, from which they picked the final 10".
The album is entitled with the name “Mazghuna”, a word that belongs to ” Abu-Ghreir” village in El Minya governorate, where the first and biggest workshop took place. In their culture, “Mazghuna”, means “Mazghuda” which means the woman who was punched and silenced or “Masjuna” which means an imprisoned woman.
“We had the feeling that the name was perfectly expressing the whole experience, and stems from it,” the band commented in their account on Indiegogo, a fund-raising website.
Fund-raising in order to make their dream come true is the only option for the band, to ensure they can continue to keep voicing other women’s stories to the world.
“Most of the producers do not easily accept our lyrics or music, so we end up negotiating on an output that we totally love and accept the way it is. That’s why we thought that producing our own songs is the best way to do it” Samir explained.
While some look at the songs’ lyrics as shocking, the members assure they are a watered down version of the real stories women shared.
“The stories were heart breaking, we all shared the same misery, however, each on a different level” Samir added.
The band was firstly established at on of creative writing workshop for Nazra, a feminist studies center. After they wrote their first song together, the three girls decided to keep going as an independent singing band that states the reality of Egyptian women in songs.
Other than donating money, the band seeks their cause to be heard and to gain as much publicity as possible, with the hashtag of #FeministsSinging, they share their dreams of being those who fight oppressing through singing.
Edited by Al Bawaba.
