DHP PRESENTS

TAQBIR

+ IKHRAS + LAYBACK

Live at Oslo, Hackney

Tickets are on sale Friday at 10am from Alt Tickets

Taqbir are a post punk band who encourage and empower North African women to be themselves. Growing up in Morocco, pursuing the simple pleasures of freedom of self-expression – especially through the production of non-censored music – could cost you your life. Historically, rock music and the metal scene haven’t been particularly welcomed in Morocco, but the two main cities of Rabat and Casablanca have seen something of a DIY underground begin to emerge in the 21st century. In 2005 a ska-infused punk band called Zlak Wlla Moute (Z.W.M) formed in Rabat and introduced some of the more modern ideologies of punk into the region. Between this and heavier music making its mark in Casablanca, it’s fair to say that this music exists in Morocco; it’s just that it tends to be an ultra-outsider concern given the life-threatening consequences that can flow from performing it.

As members of a society that teaches women to stay silent, obedient, and essentially powerless, Taqbir use their music to create a space for people like themselves to freely express their anger. Working against a culture that deems their music and outspokenness an insult to the national religion, Taqbir have carved out a space as a punk band of colour whose voices and images are something their younger selves so desperately needed as an inspiration and a statement of hope. – The Quietus