Monday, December 7th, 2009
Beat generation
Mona Eltahawy
Columnist
Monocle magazine
Denmark-based musician Simona Abdallah brings a new intensity to the traditional Arab drum, the darbuka. She is one of a brave new breed of Muslim women you’re going to hear a lot more about in the coming year.
This is going to be the year of the Muslim woman you’ve never heard of but should know. So here’s your head start. Simona Abdallah doesn’t just play the darbuka, a type of Arab drum. That’s too meek a verb. She kneads and strikes, cajoles and strokes, her hands moving so fast you lose sight of her fingers. Born in Germany to Palestinian parents, she’s lived in Denmark for most of her 30 years. Until Abdallah, I’d never seen a woman play a darbuka. How many Muslim women musicians do you know? In Europe?
There are plenty of Muslim male rappers in Europe, spitting angrily into a mic and cavorting with “party girls” on music channels. See them in Germany, see them in the Netherlands and there they are in Denmark too. But where’s his sister? At home, singing into her hairbrush, being a “good girl” no doubt.
But online in the Middle East there are fearless sisters who use social media as fearlessly as Abdallah hits that darbuka. You’ll hear more of these women in 2010.
Monocle comment:
The CDs of women singers from the Middle East line our shelves. Although the likes of Om Kalsoum belong to an era when the Middle East was less afraid of western influences.
Comments (5)
theano said:
simona simona the message received
your drumbeat riding on the vibrations of the wind
there’s a word, there’s a whisper in the fingers that weave
through the air before it speaks to the skin
simona simona my ear’s on the ground
if you beat your drum like a maasai jumping jive
i’ll open myself to the meaning of your sound
the insides of my hands unblemished and white
simona simona here’s my reply
lend my voice to the screaming of my sisters that hide
roots of our genes in quantum entanglement
the purification now a tricky engagement
simona simona here’s my reply
it may be the answer to all the world’s whys
i’m not religious so keep an open mind
this drum mantra for now is my only reply
through the blasphemy
cacophony
of this tarantino town
i’m reaching out the only way i know how
January 26th, 2010, 6:54 am
FirmHandShake said:
theano,
beautiful.
March 10th, 2010, 5:00 am
WhisperingSeashells said:
In the course of human existence we are tested.
We soar as eagles and live up to our loyal respect to humanity. When we are confronted with temptation, we go the other way and obey our inner forgotten voices from our hearts and conscience in defiance of the orders of an indifferent government or organization. Simona Abdallah is a pristine example of someone who listens to that inner voice on behalf of you and me.
By an ultimate act of altruism and self-sacrifice, we risk our own careers, livelihood, security, comfort, investments and future by molding, mutating, mixing, melting with unmeasurable extent of uncertainty in order to save thousands of others. Some of us do it gracefully.
That is Simona Abdallah.
Simona reminds me that I’m an adamant believer that proletarian internationalism’s strength and power is only enhanced by our recognition that women are just as capable, deserving, and integral to our collective emancipation as any man.
Je souhaite Simona à battre le ciel le plus élevé.
Bonne chance, Simona.
March 10th, 2010, 5:13 am
Simona said:
Thank you so very much Theano. – Your words touched me.
Wishing peace and love to all..
Simona Abdallah
March 10th, 2010, 5:58 am
M Reza said:
Dear Madam,
I like to learn darbuka. If you can teach me will you state your conditions. ie. tution fees where is your address…
I look forward hearin gfrom you.
Rerza
January 23rd, 2011, 11:26 am
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