“Brides for Sale” is a 2014 song and music video by Afghan rapper Sonita Alizadeh. The song addresses the issue of young girls in Afghanistan being sold into forced marriages by their families. The song was written after Alizadeh’s family wanted to sell her to a man for $9000. In the music video, Alizadeh discusses how she feels about being sold, the misfortunes that girls who are sold face, and how selling women is against sharia.

discussion

How would you describe Alizadeh’s feelings towards forced marriage? How do we get a sense of her feelings based on costume, makeup, performance?

What do you notice about Alizadeh’s clothes and makeup throughout the music video? How do these add to the music video’s meaning?

What conclusions about views toward Afghan women can be drawn based on this video? Consider all the similes that Alizadeh uses to explain what it is like to be a young girl who is sold as a bride.

Alizadeh starts the music video by explaining that she will have to whisper because women are not supposed to speak. In such a situation, how can issues such as forced child marriage be addressed?