Laser beams illuminate a darkened restaurant turned dance hall in Cairo as revellers move to thumping beats from female DJs — part of a generation of women shaking up Egypt’s underground electronic music scene.
“All my life, I’ve seen men behind the decks,” said party-goer Menna Shanab, 26, as psychedelic visuals reflected off the waters at the Nile-side venue.
“It’s good to see the music scene evolving,” said the young Cairo resident, decked out in fashionable streetwear.
In Egypt’s patriarchal society, the music industry remains male-dominated, while the conservative country’s cultural establishment marginalises and even bans electronic music artists.
Female party-goers for years have complained about harassment on the dance floor, while many revellers find mainstream venues too pricey.
Now, a generation of young women DJs are forging their own path, seeking to create more inclusive spaces for performers and party-goers alike.
A small but vibrant electronic music scene is “booming” in the Egyptian capital, according Yemeni music journalist and occasional DJ Hala K, asking like others AFP interviewed to be identified only by her stage name.
“A lot of female talents feel more confident and empowered to pursue DJing,” the Amsterdam-based Hala K said by telephone.
Aspiring artists are taking inspiration from female DJs from the region, she added — such as Palestinian Sama Abdulhadi, who has performed from Egypt to France and at premier US festival Coachella.
In Cairo, there are “powerful, talented women at the turntables: they know how to make people dance”, Hala K said.
– ‘Party in peace’ –
DJ and promoter A7ba-L-Jelly decided to establish her own collective as part of making the underground electronic dance music scene more inclusive.
“I wanted to organise events where I would feel safe myself, without harassment,” said the 32-year-old.
“I just wanted to go and party in peace.”
More than 90 percent of women in Egypt aged between 18 and 39 said in 2019 that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment, according to the Arab Barometer public opinion research network.
“In some places in Egypt, where they play more commercial music… you won’t enter because you are single, or because you don’t look rich enough,” A7ba-L-Jelly added.
“I book male and female DJs to create dance floors that are inclusive in terms of music, gender and social class,” she said.
From the Nile-side dance venue, DJ Yas Meen Selectress complained that regardless of gender, “there are no dedicated spaces for us where we can play our music”.
Locations are often gardens or other makeshift sites, organisers told AFP.
“Traditions, society and other factors mean that there are fewer women than men in the scene,” Yas Meen Selectress added. Less than 20 percent of women are officially employed in the country of 104 million.
For the DJ in her late 20s, who lives between Cairo and New York, however, “to be only defined by one’s…
