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Two women from different parts of the world share the stories of their lives

Two women from different parts of the world, united by a common passion, experience or expertise, share the stories of their lives.

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The Conversation: Women using hip hop to change attitudes

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L: Rebeca Lane (credit: Belen Marco) R: Amani Yahya (credit: Fredrik Gille)

02/09/2019 GMT

Women using hip hop to change attitudes

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Women using hip hop to change attitudes

Two female hip hop artists from Guatemala and Yemen on the challenges they've faced

Two female hip hop artists from Guatemala and Yemen on the challenges they've faced.

What's life like for women in hip hop? Nelufar Hedayat brings together two outspoken female hip hop artists from Guatemala and Yemen, who aim to change attitudes with their songs.

Rebeca Lane is a feminist hip hop star in Central America.  She embraced hip hop as a form of protest music, and raps about issues that affect women such as domestic violence and femicide. She co-founded Somos Guerreras, an all-female rap collective that tours Europe and the Americas and holds workshops for women. Although famous outside her country she keeps a lower profile when in Guatemala, as she says being an activist there can be dangerous.

Amani Yahya is a Yemeni musician who grew up in Saudi Arabia, returning to Yemen for high school. She became part of a thriving cultural scene there, performing her own brand of hip hop ballad to rapt audiences.  However she also received threats from religious conservatives. When war broke out in 2014 she escaped back to Saudi Arabia only to face a backlash there too. Now based in the US, she is passionate about getting social messages across in her songs, including against child marriage.

Image: L: Rebeca Lane (credit Belen Marco) R: Amani Yahya (credit Fredrik Gille)

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