11/26/2008 11:46:25 PM EST
The AccoLade - all-girl Saudi rock band
posted by marlonm
Their music isn't half bad either. I love the instrumentals, not sure about the lyrics, but I'll give them this: they've got cajones.
Women are singing angry lyrics about how a relationship with a man hurt them, in SAUDI ARABIA. In parts of Saudi Arabia a woman can't walk outside after dark without a male relative, or else she runs the risk of being raped. It's a fundamentalist Muslim government and society and they're not singing out against it directly, but the fact that they're singing and what they're singing about is a slap in the face to the sexually oppressive culture.
And that alone makes me their biggest fan. Wow. They sound so hot too, so punk rock - here's a quote:
'In early November, Dina, who studies art at King Abdulaziz University, began writing a song based on one of her favorite paintings, "The Accolade," by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. The painting depicts a long-haired noblewoman knighting a young warrior with a sword.
"I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man," Dina said.'
That's it. Bang the gavel. The AccoLade is officially AWESOME.
Man...what I wouldn't give to be at their first large-venue rock concert in Saudi Arabia. Can you imagine how exciting it would be? Whether it happens within the next ten years or what. I hope it happens - I hope they and young Saudis like them who desperately want freedom have an increasingly louder voice in Saudi culture as time goes on. I hope there isn't a conservative backlash and I pray for the safety and rock-and-roll future of these brave, totally hot young women.
