Arab Hip Hop Queen Malikah

Daily life for women in the Arab world is never an easy task in a male-dominated society. So imagine being one of very few female emcees taking on the testosterone-driven world of Arabic hip hop. But, MC Lix aka Malikah, which means Queen in Arabic, is doing just that.

Born into a Lebanese/Algerian family in Marseille, France in 1986, Malikah has spent the last nine years not only establishing herself as a well respected MC but also letting the world know that Arab women have something to say and should be respected.

Proclaimed the "Best MC in Lebanon" after making her mark on MTV Hip HopNa, Malikah has become the voice of female empowerment through her music. One of her trademark songs is Ya Imra’a, which encourages women to fight for their rights and freedom -- despite all the obstacles they face in the Middle East and North Africa.

Here's a little taste of the Queen in action.




At the onset of her career, Malikah faced her own obstacles. Besides battling her male counterparts, she was also forced to cover her face whenever making public concerts due to the opposition she faced from her family of being a rapper. On stage, Malikah is a force to be reckoned with. She is hardcore and serious when it comes to politics and social issues, but smooth when it comes to singing about love and friendship.

Currently, Malikah is hard at work creating her debut album, The Coronation. Here’s a link to her MySpace page to keep up with all her doings.

LEBANON: Memoirs of an Algerian Transsexual

Threatening emails, phone calls, constant surveillance by secret police and eventually prison couldn’t dissuade Randa, an Algerian transsexual and pioneer in the Arab world’s gay and transsexual movement, from going public with her life story.

“I returned home to Algeria from my last trip and that’s when the threats to imprison me started,” says Randa, who received initial threats via email and phone. “As a method of intimidating me, they started sending articles about me to my family, and they would show up at my workplace. Once, while being stopped at a checkpoint, one of the officers grabbed me in the car and told me that he could arrest and rape me and no one would know about it.”

Convinced by influential members of Algerian society, two of Randa’s friends were forced to present her with an ultimatum. Leave the country in ten days or things will get worse.

Ten days is not a long time, but as luck would have it, a feminist organization in Lebanon found out about Randa’s situation and offered to assist.

“I don’t regret speaking out because in the end I realized that the reason they were doing all of this was because they were scared. I managed to shake up their system and this is why they were lashing out at me,” she said in an interview with Her Blueprint. “Of course it was driving me crazy, and I knew that if I didn’t leave the country they would kill me. I decided to continue addressing the situation of LGBT in Algeria outside the country and accepted the offer to go to Lebanon.”

However, Randa’s troubles were far from over.