Disclaimer: This article was a group effort between my lovely friend Nourhan Ahmed & myself.
A couple of days ago, the term "Salmonella" was nothing more than the name for a bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract, that was until Tameem Younis released his controversial song titled Salmonella. The satire talks about a guy who saw a girl in a café and decided to go there every day till he sees her again to ask for her number. In the song, the guy suggests possible scenarios: if he didn't get rejected, he'd get Mahmod El-Esseily (famous Egyptian singer) to perform at their wedding, buy her an apartment and make pizza for her. But, if he did get turned down, he'll basically go all psycho on her; from spreading rumors about her dignity to throwing the previously mentioned homemade pizza in Esseily's face. Then comes the chorus of the song, which mainly consists of Tameem repeating the phrase "3ashan teb2y t2ooly la2" ("So that you refuse again," threatening women to not refuse). Now, the controversy around this song stems from the constant repetition of this phrase, among many other violent threats, in response to a woman’s rejection, which encourages violence towards women who reject a man’s offer, be them sexual or romantic. The song had undertones of sarcasm to mock men who act crazy when rejected. However, the sarcasm, as mentioned, was a mere undertone that so many people missed. Even Tameem predicted that some people may not get the intended gist., so why release a song about a sensitive topic that you know could potentially be misunderstood? I definitely don't condone the restriction of artists, but an artist should consider the type of society their art is being released into, and should also have a certain level of social responsibility. The undertones could have been complemented with a verse that amplified the song's true meaning, and the song would have served its purpose of shedding light on the mentioned type of (extremely dangerous) men, and made sure everyone got the message. It might have even served as a wakeup call to one or two of these men. The issue of discussion here is not the honourity of Tameem’s intentions, or of his values; it rather is the message this song conveys to the audience. Some might argue that popular, respectable bands have made similar metaphors with their songs, take the song Battery by Metallica, for example. The song includes violent lyrics about the murder of a family, but is that the same as the situation we are put in with Salmonella? The murder of a family, in Battery, is not considered a cultural norm, and can immediately be ruled as an extreme metaphor; meanwhile, taunting a girl for not falling in love with you happens on every corner of Egyptian streets. It happens to us, to our friends and family, to our people; so making a song repeating such a violent slur, that has probably been already used by so many young men, and not outlining the satire behind it, doesn’t seem like such a morally correct move to me. Not being clear enough in this type of song could result in horrible consequences. I can already hear of the uses some men are making out of the song's catchphrase when taunting a woman. Something as simple as a misunderstood song could drastically worsen the current harassment situation in Egypt. Not to mention that the timing of the release was very close to the Mansoura harassment incident, which increases the offence of this song. The song may have been well-intended, and even funny, but I encourage you to take a look at the posts being made using Tameem's catchphrase, and see for yourself how funny it actually is.
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