Pop culture has the power to change entrenched ideas and rules that political activism often struggles to make a dent in. 

Lebanese alternative rock band, Mashrou’ Leila, has created in its new music video for Roman a snapshot of the Middle east today that will make you rethink the ideas you have in your head. This is not the group’s first political statement. Its songs have previously broached hot potato topics like local politics, sexuality and LGBTQ rights.

The song was named for, and puts a lot of blame on, the empire that rules the region from 64 B.C. to 646 A.D. Mostly, it shows a Middle East in which popular culture is assimilating itself into a rigorously traditional culture.

The video was co-produced by the Beirut office of McCann Worldwide’s FP7 network and released in advance of the band’s current tour of the US and UK, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Serbia, Tunisia and Morocco. It was directed by emerging female Lebanese director, Jessy Mousallem.

Its aim is to illustrate how “how struggle and conflict can be used as a starting place for progress,” according to the launch statement, and uses traditionally dressed Arab and Muslim women to “purposefully celebrate Middle Eastern feminism.”

The video’s final scene, in which a group of traditionally dressed women walk into the water, is intended to be a visual metaphor for the sort of “sea change” they seek in Lebanese society.

Credits:

Agency: FP7/McCann, Beirut
Production company: Clandestino Films
Director: Jessy Mousallem