Famous Arab YouTubers Seek to Empower Females

In recent years, a growing number of Arab women in the Middle East are finding an audience on YouTube, according to BuzzFeed.

"Between 2014 and 2015, the top four YouTube channels led by women in Saudi Arabia saw an increase in subscribers of more than 200 percent. Across the Middle East and North Africa, content related to women has seen a 50 percent year-on-year growth," the website reported. 

For some, viral fame has opened doors to new opportunities.

The United Nations recently appointed Syrian Hayla Al Ghazal, one of YouTube's Arab female celebrites, to fight for gender equality.

The Dubai-based vlogger has produced more than 150 videos of comedy sketches and lifestyle advice for her YouTube channel, "HaylaTV." 

According to Al Arabiya, Ghazal said she is now on a mission to empower females in the region to use platforms such as YouTube to express themselves.

TV Host Işık Abla said that YouTube is helping women "get outside of their boxes."

"This could have a huge affect, because women (will) start dreaming now," Abla told CBN News. 

She also said this is an opportunity for women watching these videos to hear about the Gospel.

"They are starving for the truth, they will be searching," she said. 

Some believe the empowerment of women in the MIddle East can bring an end to radical Islam. The U.K. based Mirror quoted documentary maker Deeyah Khan saying "Muslim women can save the world from ISIS." 

Abla believes that's possibly true.

"With God all things are possible," she said. "Now we are seeing in the world Jesus is using women to change the world."

The videos connect women in the Middle East to one another in ways no other generation has been able to. Another YouTube star, Al-Juhara Sajer from Saudi Arabia, began making makeup videos for Arabic-speaking women. Her YouTube channel, JaySajer has almost 340,000 subscribers.

"A lot of girls told me they could relate to my videos," she said in a Skype interview with BuzzFeed News. "I made them feel less alone because I was talking about a lifestyle they understood in their own language."

Popular YouTuber Haifa Bseisso, from Dubai, produces her videos in English rather than Arabic. According to BuzzFeed, she said she wants to be a bridge between the East and the West, and challenge negative perceptions about Arab women.

Bseisso left her job as a TV producer to focus on her YouTube channel, Fly With Haifa. 

"I've always had a hunger to speak up and be in front of the camera so it was perfect," she said. "I'm following my dreams and trying things on my own. I hope I can inspire other women to follow their dreams too."

Some of the women are getting backlash. Sajer said she often has men telling her to quite because she should be "focusing on being a housewife," and YouTube isn't "the place for a girl."

Ghazal said she's criticized for her looks and told to "cover up because they believe in a more conservative society."

"But I think it's important to show people that there's nothing wrong with being a woman trying to make change," Ghazal said.

And Bseisso, who wears a hijab, says she gets criticism for being to conservative from some people, while others tell her she needs to be more modest. 

Despite the criticism in the comments section, these women and others are finding a voice on the Internet through YouTube and other social media platforms.