In a rap scene dominated my men, women’s voices are starting to make waves in Morocco. Houda Abouz, a 24-year-old who majors in film studies at a university in the northern city of Tetouan, has long been fascinated by hip-hop, and, encouraged by friends, she picked up a mic and began to perform. In January she appeared in “Hors Serie”, a song in which she performed alongside three big male rap stars in Morocco, Elgrande Toto, Don Bigg and Draganov. The video has been viewed around 16 million times on YouTube – a reflection of the popularity the genre enjoys across the north African kingdom – and its success encouraged Abouz to go it alone. Abouz, who describes herself as a feminist and supporter of LGBT rights, said she was influenced by the pro-democracy protests that shook Morocco in 2011 during the “Arab spring”.