A music video featuring skateboarding women has Saudi Arabia entranced

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Perhaps the most obvious reference comes at the start of the video, when the women pile into the back of an SUV while a young boy takes the wheel. In Saudi Arabia, of course, women are largely prohibited from driving and are unable to obtain driving licenses. Although some women, especially members of Bedouin communities and those in the southern provinces, do drive anyway, the issue has become a touchstone for women's rights in the country.

The video also emphasizes the hypocrisy of disapproving Saudi men, who can drive freely and travel abroad as they wish. There are also references to President-elect Donald Trump, who leads what the video refers to as a “House of Men.” “Hwages” has earned high praise from some parts of the Saudi establishment. Shortly after the video was released Dec. 23, Amera al-Taweel, the 33-year-old ex-wife of prominent Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, shared the video on her Twitter account. Later, one of the oldest newspapers in the country, Al-Bilad, offered its own praise for the video, noting that “the new generation of women is different from the past.”

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