Healing the trauma with Mona Haydar

Mona Haydar is many things — a rapper, a poet, and an activist — but being diffident is not one of them.

A Syrian-American independent artist based in Flint, Michigan, she’s on a mission to promote love and justice across the globe with her music. In 2017, her viral music video “Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab)” gained over six million viewers on Youtube and was named by Billboard as one of “The 20 Best Protest Songs of 2017.” The Lemonade-esque music video is a call to arms for women of colour everywhere to resist the patriarchy, white supremacy, and colonization. 

In our interview, Haydar expressed her love for music not only as a tool to convey messages, but also as a tool of healing from trauma: ancestral, mental, spiritual, and emotional trauma. 

“I believe that music is healing at its core and at its source,” Haydar said. “It can be used for good. It can be used for evil. And I just see it as such a beautiful, beautiful modality for healing [from trauma].” 

She also states that music can be enjoyable while talking about serious issues and concerns. 

“For me, [music is] about dealing with hard issues in a way that’s approachable, accessible, [and] is an entry point for people. So hopefully, we can talk about a few things while also having a good time in turning up. We can talk about oppression and trauma while healing it,” Haydar said. 

Haydar was at Edmonton’s Mosquers International Muslim Film Festival on September 21. Fans can tell you how incredibly motivational she was as she performed her music and gave a brief talk about her musical journey.

Ira Amirruddin, a Muslim University of Alberta student, attended the event and had the opportunity to watch Haydar’s performances. In my interview with Amirruddin, we talked about why people — be it Edmontonians, U of A students, or anyone in general — should give Haydar’s revelatory work a closer listen.

“Her music was inspiring because they truly reflect the Muslim community’s hardships. Not only that, Mona’s music covered other social issues like colonizations, white supremacy, and feminism,” Amirruddin said. “For some (if not most), it’s so easy to just follow the system or do things in certain ways because that’s just the way they are, even if they aren’t right. Mona really expresses in her music that she doesn’t stand for ignorance, may it be in religion, race, power, etc.”

Now, Haydar has returned with a diss-track called “American.” The fierce track and video demonstrates her political beliefs in her music, addressing issues and concerns of race, gender, and the aspirational American identity as she raps explicitly and unapologetically.  She continues to radiate her exuberant presence in the music world. It’s only a matter of time until America learns that Mona Haydar is a musical force to be reckoned with.