If you can think of a stereotype for Muslim women, the odds are that Mona Haydar utterly shatters it. A mother of two, this proud woman also has a Masters in Christian Ethics, 13 years under her belt as a performance poet and a burgeoning second career in rap music. A first generation American with Syrian roots, Haydar\u2019s rap music first gained serious attention when her music video \u201cHijabi (Wrap My Hijab)\u201d went viral. The song, like most of Haydar\u2019s music, was unapologetically political, but that has not stopped her from garnering quite a bit of support and popularity.<\/p>\n
Haydar\u2019s music draws on both Arab pop and folk sounds and classic hip-hop and pop beats. She was influenced by iconic Arab performers such as Um Kulthoum, Fayrouz and AbdelHaim Hafiz as well as a variety of American artists including Princess Nokia, J. Cole, Jimi Hendrix, the Black Keys, Thelonious Monk and Prince. Despite the Arab influence, however, Haydar says she gravitated towards rap as a genre because that was what she heard when she was young. \u201cI didn\u2019t grow up with Arabic music,\u201d Haydar said. \u201cI grew up in Flint, [Michigan,] where the cars drove by and you heard what you heard. You didn\u2019t hear what you hear in the Middle East\u2026You heard Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu and whatever was on the radio at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sound Haydar ended up developing was certainly popular. \u201cHajabi (Wrap My Hijab)\u201d skyrocketed to nearly a million views on YouTube in less than a month. \u201cI definitely didn\u2019t expect the video to do what it has,\u201d Haydar said. \u201cIt\u2019s my first attempt at music!\u201d<\/p>\n
Being new to the industry certainly has not stopped Haydar from being determined to get her messages, political and otherwise, through to her audience. \u201cHijabi\u201d was intended to serve as an anthem for Muslim women who are proud to wear the hijab, and Haydar has stated that she wants to be a visible symbol for Muslim girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited by the fact that [my music is] normalizing the narrative of Muslim American women and women in general,\u201d Haydar said. \u201cFor young Muslim girls, to see a girl that looks like her mom in a music video, who doesn\u2019t have a stick-thin body, who isn\u2019t wearing gobs and gobs of makeup, who is just a normal woman doing normal things in a video, [is so important.] I\u2019m just really excited that that\u2019s out in the world for young girls to see and feel like, \u2018I can look like whatever I want and be in a music video, and nothing can stop me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Given how rapidly her music is capturing attention, she might well get her wish and be simply the first of many Muslim women to break into the American music industry.<\/p>\n
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