GIRL POWER ALERT: MASHROU’ LEILA’S ROMAN

Before we dive in, I think every reader needs to watch the video:

I humbly welcome you all to Mashrou’ Leila— your new favorite Lebanese rock band. Roman was the first song I had heard from the incredibly majestic rock group, headed by singer and lyricist Hamed Sinno, violinist Haig Papazian, keyboardist and guitarist Firas Abou Fakher, bassist Ibrahim Badr and drummer Carl Gerges. The video that just inspired the life out of you is directed by international genius Jessy Moussallem, rising out of Lebanon to create visuals that both challenges misconceptions and fortifies expectations.

If you are a non-Arab speaker, like me, the lyrics are very helpful. As listed below, the lyrics also, open our conversation.

“I don't intend to swallow your lies

The words would sting my throat.

I won’t dissect your intentions;

Leave your tongue in its cage.

You can keep the time I gave you;

Strangle what self I was for you,

But before you lay me to rest,

Tell me what cost I came at.

Charge

Worms sculpt my body now.

The earth cradles my skin.

Why'd you sell me to the Romans?

Worms sculpt my body now.

The earth cradles my skin.

How'd I lose you to the Romans?

Charge

Why'd you sell me to the Romans?

How'd I lose you to the Romans?”

To be a roman in the Arab/Muslim world is rather heavy— it has a tumultuous history. Roman, or “rum” in Arabic, Farsi, and even at times, Urdu and Hindi, has been used to mean foreigner, an outsider, and even infidel. Originally, it meant quite the opposite. At the beginnings of Islam as a religion, the world was a host of holy empires. To the east, Islam bordered the Sassanids, the Zoroastrian empire of the Persians. To the west, Islam bordered Byzantium, the Christian empire of the romans. Arabia until rather recently in history was of oral tradition, you don’t see “rum" written down in many places before arriving at the Quran, where the 30th Surah, or chapter, is called Surah-ar-Rum.

The Surah showcases a reality very different to what rum, or roman, means in modern times. In the Quran, it is used to describe the fact that Muslims and Christians, i.e. Romans, held "The Natural Bond of Faith.” Both of a monotheists breed, who believed in one god; the word meant a friendship of common belief. Through history and war, however, the word twisted into one of enemy or “other”— from the Crusades to the Ottoman empire, Rum was used to mean who Islam, or the Arabs, were not.

I do not speak Arabic and it took me some time before I actually read the lyric translation to this wonderful song. But even before knowing what it meant, I had a feeling that the song was saying something close to “do not make a Roman out of me.” That is, do not make me into your other, do not objectify me into your enemy. Upon reading the lyrics and seeing that the last lines meant "Why'd you sell me to the Romans? How'd I lose you to the Romans.” I realized how close I was to the actual translation.

Sinno writes to NPR that the visuals seek to "disturb the dominant global narrative of hyper-secularized (white) feminism, which increasingly positions itself as incompatible with Islam and the Arab world, celebrating the various modalities of Middle Eastern feminism.” The creative achieved just that. Viewers are taken aback but the grace and familiarity of each face while maintaining the understanding that each of these women is a powerful individual. But Roman goes even further, it brings about the very ancient ubiquity of womanhood, one every single one of us can feel.

As a brown woman from a very mixed origin, the reason this video mattered to me was that the women represented are all of us, were all of us, will continue to be all of us. From the lands of Eastern Europe, down through the Sahara, east to Nagaland, the women showcased do not just represent the diversity of those who birthed and built the Middle East, they also represent the diversity of women of color in general. I am not Arab, I am only half Middle Eastern, but the end visual of the protagonist galloping, veil flying in the wind, reminded me that she is all of us. She is my Iranian mother, my Indian grandmother, my Pakistani aunts and my Arab ancestors. That desert could be the Arabian or it could be the Gobi. Her veil, chiffon from Shiraz or raw silk from Kolkata. The band and Moussallem created a visual that showcases the strength and individuality that lives in all of us, through time and space.

To Mashou Leila I salute you for being able to sing the compassion and the history all our mothers carried for generations. This production value, technical execution, and lyrical content are unmatched. On the most spiritual level, it is also a reminder to women of color as to what our ancestors fought like, looked like, and felt like. Looking at that veiled woman on her steed, it becomes apparent that our notions of “girl power” mean nothing if they do not come with women who looked, rode, and held passion on their fingertips like the protagonist in the music video. Such women still exist, they still wear veils, they still function in cities older than time, and in our quest to equalize, we must not forget them and their histories, because they are also our histories.

Roman is a call, as Mashrou' Leila explains, to "self-realization, treating oppression not as a source of victimhood, but as the fertile ground from which resistance can be weaponized.” It is the recognization of a much older breed of girl power, one that keeps spirituality and its side as it keeps inequality at bay. Women, brown women specifically, feel like romans, or outsiders, in every aspect of their lives. Marginalized and objectified in so many channels, Roman is a reminder that our fight is intergenerational, intercontinental, and most importantly- interpersonal. To not loose one's self, and one’s sisters, to “Roman's”— to not lose yourself and your people to the violence that surrounds you daily. It is a reminder that we do not have to violently other ourselves based on cast and creed, that our collective history is our collective strength.

Sources:

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/19/537923929/songs-we-love-mashrou-leila-roman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar-Rum

Words by: Suraiya Ali