This Dope Rap Video About Hijabs Celebrates All Shades of Muslim Women

What that hair look like? 
Bet that hair look nice. 
Don’t that make you sweat? 
Don’t that feel too tight?

Those lines are the opening lyrics to “Hijabi” — the groundbreaking debut single by Syrian-American artist Mona Haydar. The song’s video debuted last month on Muslim Women’s Day and it has already started reverberate around the world as viral sensation.

Her song focuses on the Islamaphobia Muslim women worldwide, and in the U.S., face just for choosing to wear a hijab. 

Given our current administration’s insistence on demonizing and maligning the bodies of women and Muslims, among others, I wanted to get this song out as soon as possible,” Haydar, who is a Flint, MI native, told The Huffington Post. “I hoped that a pregnant woman who is obviously Muslim [and] creating art and speaking truth would inspire people and offer some levity, joy and hope.”

The song is also a reminder “that beauty is not based on appearance and looks but based on the heart and mind, and that all women should be respected,” she told Al Arabiya English.

And the catchy song’s video does that. It is filled with Muslim women of all shades. Whether sitting in portrait-esque poses (reminiscent of Beyonce) or hitting the choreographed moves, there is no doubt that this is a celebration of women. Each of the women in the video also shows off the different ways one can wear their hijab.

All around the world
Love women every shading
be so liberated
All around the world
Love women every shading
power run deep
So even if you hate it
I still wrap my hijab.

In the middle of it all is a visibly pregnant Haydar, who at points in the video rubs her eight-month old belly. Her choice to shoot the video while heavily pregnant has received some backlash.  But having been an artist and poet for over a decade now, Haydar is not afraid of the controversy.

Women who watched it have told her “how inspired they are by the video that I didn’t wait to deliver the baby and have the ‘perfect body’ before making the video,” she told Buzzfeed. “In a lot of ways that’s what the song is about. It’s about tearing down the invisible structures that oppress women in ways most of us don’t even realize. Hijab, pregnancy — none of it holds me back.”

Watch the full video below: