Saudi woman attacks clerics in poetry contest

Independent:

Instead of Jon and Edward dressed as the Ghostbusters, it featured a single woman covered from head to toe in black, declaiming traditional Arabic poetry from a podium. And rather than Cheryl Cole or Dannii Minogue in a revealing designer outfit, the judging panel consists of five sober-looking men with bushy moustaches, and a similarly all-male audience.

The X Factor it isn't – but Abu Dhabi's live poetry talent contest, The Million's Poet, which is broadcast across the Arab world, features something far more subversive than its British equivalent could ever manage.

Tonight, Hissa Hilal, a mother-of-four from Saudi Arabia, takes to the stage in the last round of a competition that she has taken by storm with a scathing critique of the conservative clerics who hold sway in her country. Her poetry has earned her the praise of the judges, the acclaim of the viewing public – and more than a few death threats.

Ms Hilal earned her place in the final with a performance last week, which was seen as a response to a prominent Saudi cleric's call for those who advocated the mingling of men and women to be punished with death. In a 15-verse work, she railed against preachers who "sit in the position of power", "frightening" people with their religious edicts.

"I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas, at a time when the permitted is being twisted into the forbidden," she said, with only her microphone and her eyes visible against the uniform black of her burqa. The clerics, she went on – and, by extension, suicide bombers who wrap explosives around their waists – "are vicious in voice, barbaric, angry and blind, wearing death as a robe cinched with a belt".

It was a bold message indeed, and in Saudi Arabia, where unmarried men and women are entirely segregated, a highly controversial one. But when she finished, the ranks of men listening erupted into cheers, and the judges sent her into today's final with compliments ringing in her ears.

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But despite the life-changing money on offer, Ms Hilal is a little taken aback by the sudden fame that the show has brought her. "I worry how I will be perceived after the show is over," she said. "I worry the lights of fame will affect my simple and quiet existence."

One thing is for sure. No one on the street will recognize her. She is dressed in black from head to toe with only and eye slit breaking the clothing. It is probably the only way to speak truth to power in that part of the world.