FP7 Beirut helped create this incredible music video for Mashrou’ Leila’s Roman, celebrating feminism in the modern Arab world. Via Adweek:
Lebanese alternative rock band Mashrou’ Leila’s vision of the Middle East today is an amalgam of varied and sometimes contradictory influences, from the historical to the political.
“Worms sculpt my body now/ The earth cradles my skin/ Why’d you sell me to the Romans?”
So sings lead vocalist Hamed Sinno in his group’s latest single “Roman,” named for the doomed empire that ruled the area from 64 B.C. to 646 A.D.
The song’s video, which was co-produced by the Beirut-area outpost of McCann Worldwide’s FP7 network, plays with and reinterprets stereotypes of Arabic and Muslim cultures. According to a release about the project, the band, whose name translates to “Leila’s Project” or “Overnight Project,” aims to illustrate “how struggle and conflict can be used as a starting place for progress” by using traditionally dressed Arab and Muslim women to “purposefully celebrate Middle Eastern feminism.”