Palestinian singer Elyanna has drawn criticism over her latest music video, with viewers questioning the decision to set the lively and playful clip in a jail while Palestinian women face widespread abuse in Israeli prisons.
Released on 4 September, BOSA opens with Elyanna behind metal bars. The video then moves through a stone prison-like compound, where she and a group of female dancers perform in courtyards and around barred windows. Throughout the song Elyanna is inviting the listener to “give [her] a kiss, kiss".
The women eventually walk out of the compound. Speaking to Complex MENA, Elyanna said: “With BOSA, I invite women to be loud about their femininity, desire, confidence, and freedom.”
But for some viewers, the prison setting was difficult to separate from the reality of Palestinians in Israeli detention.
“Wtf why is this set in a prison?” one commenter wrote under a promotional clip of the video.
