Hissa Hilal, Saudi Poet - The voice of the Million’s

If all goes her way, Hissa Hilal, a Saudi poet, will win Dh5m next week at the finale of Million’s Poet. As a young girl she was forced to write in secret and hide her poems under the bed from strict Bedouin parents who did not believe it was a socially acceptable activity for girls. 

Ref: Hamida Ghafour - http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100403/WEEKENDER/704029838/1184/enewsletter

April 03. 2010

As a young girl she was forced to write in secret and hide her poems under the bed from strict Bedouin parents who did not believe it was a socially acceptable activity for girls. 

But now Hissa Hilal, 43, has become a cause célèbre for her passionate and scathing attacks against the oppression of Arab women which have earned her admiration – and some scorn – from millions of people around the world. The Saudi poet, a finalist on the hit show Million’s Poet to be broadcast on Abu Dhabi TV next week, appears overwhelmed by the global attention. 

“I feel really happy to be here. I didn’t expect this. I always knew a poem could affect people but I didn’t know one poem could do all of this.” A month ago, Mrs Hilal was an unknown housewife living in Riyadh, a mother of four children who, like many Saudi women, are angry about the discrimination they face, but feel powerless to change anything.

Since then, her compositions for the semi-final rounds which criticised “ad hoc fatwas” and compared those who veil the truth to the explosives belts worn by suicide bombers, have spread like wildfire around the world.  Even the American channel Fox News, hardly the voice of sympathy for Arab causes, called her “brave”.

“Arab society has the ideas I have and the feelings I have, but nobody wants to talk about it,” shesays. “So I am breaking the silence and being the first to talk.”  Mrs Hilal speaks in a low, deep voice. She does not take off her niqab, the face veil, even though she is in a room with women only. She is conscious that if she wins the Million’s Poet final next Wednesday, the media attention will intensify and her family will lose even more privacy. In the Middle East, she has become a household name, with websites applauding and denouncing her. She has even received death threats. For the moment, she is hoping to find some peace over the weekend to prepare for the final, in which she goes head to head with four other contestants for the Dh5 million (US$1.3m) first prize. If she wins, Mrs Hilal will be the first woman do so. 

Million’s Poet focuses on the Nabati style of poetry popular in the Arabian peninsula. Mrs Hilal’s husband and four daughters, aged seven to 11, travelled with her to Abu Dhabi, but they will not be sitting in the Al Raha Beach Theatre because they fear harassment. “My family do not want me to involve them in all of this,” Mrs Hilal says. “They prefer to watch from the hotel room.” Her life story is remarkable. She was born in a tent, in the vast desert between the borders of Saudi Arabia and eastern Jordan. Her family were Bedouin and are from al Malihan tribe. Her parents settled in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, when she was young.  “I was born and grew up in the desert. I used to like reading and writing. It is my nature. When I first heard poetry and music as a young girl in the desert, it attracted me. I was immersed and would think of its meaning, its feeling.” But she rebelled against conservative, nomadic culture by expressing interest in writing. 

“I wrote my articles at home and sent them by fax to the office.”  Mrs Hilal is interested in other female poets who deal with women’s struggles, in particular Nadia Anjuman, the Afghan who wrote about women’s oppression and was beaten to death by her husband in November 2005 for supposedly bringing disgrace upon the family.

“I loved to read about her. It is so sad what is happening to Afghan women. It is heartbreaking. It can happen to another lady very easily what happened to Nadia.”  Mrs Hilal does not see a contradiction between speaking up on behalf of women and wearing a niqab.

“This is tribal culture,” she says, tugging at the black veil. “Maybe tribal culture will change over time. Who knows? Maybe the next generation of girls will not wear it. What matters now is the behaviour of people and the law, not cloth.”  For the first three seasons of Million’s Poet, Mrs Hilal tried to persuade her family to allow her to participate – Saudi women need written permission from their male guardians to travel abroad – but they were not convinced. 

“My husband was not refusing but he was hesitating. For him it is also a risk because men in such a society, to allow women to appear in public and speak in front of millions of people, is shameful. But he is open-minded. He is also a poet. He is a highly thinking man. When the fourth season came he said, ‘If you want to go, go’.”  She is confident that she has a strong chance of winning next week. 

“I was always a very strong poet and everyone knows that. Some of my colleagues at Al Hayat said, ‘Hissa is going to the Million’s Poet? Wait until the world sees what she will say’.” She shocked the world with her poem on the episode aired last month in which she took on the powerful Salafi religious establishment in Saudi Arabia by denouncing them as “angry and blind”.

It propelled her into the penultimate round in which she tackled censorship: “I join the birds of light in a battle of enlightenment, we want to rise with a world that is fighting its ignorance.”  In an Arab context, those words are not for the faint of heart.  “I thought I could reach millions of people. It is a famous programme and everyone can see it,” she says, simply.  But why use such strong, provocative language?

“Because extremism is so strong and you cannot talk about it in any other way.”  She continues: “I want the Arabs to take a chance. There is open media now. We can show the world we are good people, that Arabs have generosity, mercy, compassion, kindness. It is a chance to improve our image in the world.”

Real change, however, will happen when laws are reformed because a poet can only do so much.  “The written laws must change. It is not just fathers who should have the right to decide what happens to their children, to have custody. A girl under 18 should not be forced into marriage. Women should be given a chance to choose whom they want to marry.”   Mrs Hilal does not believe women should have to get permission from their husbands before they can travel either. 

“I am not saying girls aged 15 or 16 should be allowed to travel alone abroad. A girl that age does not have experience or judgement. I wouldn’t allow my daughters to do that. But if she is over 30? An adult woman has judgement, she knows what is good and bad.”  Mrs Hilal says men’s support will be critical in reforms.   “My colleagues, my husband, my brother, the judges – without the support of men, good men, we cannot do anything. I have a very good relationship with my husband.”  She is worried, however, about the controversy she has unleashed. 

“Maybe nothing will happen. It will be silent and peaceful, I hope. I knew there would be such a reaction, but I believe they are a small minority, maybe 20 or 30 per cent. The majority of society is supportive of what I say.” She sounds confident.