All-women’s Islamic choir smashes gender taboos in Egypt

Nema Fathi says her female choir group is determined to challenge deep-rooted taboos about women singing religious songs in public.

The words of the Islamic hymns being rehearsed in a small studio just outside Cairo are well known among Egyptian Muslims, but they have never sounded so different. Here, they are being sung by women. Songs in praise of God and Islam’s Prophet Mohammad are a common religious custom in Egypt and the Middle East, but they are almost always performed by men and boys. The members of Al Hur, Egypt’s first all-female Muslim recitation choir, are determined to change that – challenging deep-rooted taboos about women singing in public or reciting from the Quran in the socially conservative country.