Mariah Carey slammed by women’s rights activists for Saudi Arabia performance
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Mariah Carey may want to follow her own advice and proceed with caution when it comes to performing in oppressive regimes, activists advise.
The iconic songbird will perform in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the first time, outraging women’s rights activists who want her to pull out in support of detained women in the country.
The Associated Press reports that Carey, 48, is the biggest start to perform in Saudi Arabia since the notoriously conservative country loosened their strict entertainment restrictions, but activists claim Carey’s show is an effort from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to improve the kingdom’s reputation after the Oct. 2 murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Reps for the singer told The Associated Press in a statement that when the “Hero” singer was “presented with the offer to perform for an international and mixed gender audience in Saudi Arabia, Mariah accepted the opportunity as a positive step towards the dissolution of gender segregation.”
“As the first female international artist to perform in Saudi Arabia, Mariah recognizes the cultural significance of this event and will continue to support global efforts towards equality for all,” the statement continued.
In December, Saudi Arabia hosted a Formula-E car race in Riyadh that featured concerts by Enrique Iglesias, The Black Eyed Peas and DJ David Guetta.
Omaima Al-Najjar, a Saudi woman who fled the kingdom to seek political refuge abroad, said that the concerts are a diversion from the Saudi-led war in Yemen against the neighboring country’s Houthi rebels, human rights abuses committed under the crown prince and repressive male guardianship laws that restrict women’s freedoms.
“The Saudi government is using entertainment to distract the people from human rights abuses because it can sense the anger among the public,” she said.
Al-Najjar is a co-founder of Women for Rights in Saudi Arabia, or WARSA, which launched a petition calling on Carey to boycott the country. The petition aimed to publicly pressure Carey because “she has power to stand for women … as an artist and as a female,” Al-Najjar said.
Activists are tweeting at Carey directly, urging her to take notice of the prominent Saudi women’s rights activists imprisoned since May who had long campaigned for social changes and women’s empowerment. The women, who include activists in their 20s as well as mothers, grandmothers and retired professors, have been accused of vague national security violations in connection to their human rights work.
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