14-Year-Old Arrested in Saudi Arabia for Doing the Macarena
Jeddah boy dancing in the middle of Tahlia Street is the hero we need pic.twitter.com/fui9v2UuDF
— Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) August 19, 2017
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BBC – A 14-year-old boy who went viral on Twitter for dancing the Macarena in a busy Saudi Arabian street has been arrested by authorities.
The teenager is being questioned after being accused of “improper public behaviour” in Jeddah, a statement said. …
In the 45-second clip the teen can be seen disrupting traffic while dancing to the popular 1990s hit song. The clip was believed to have been first posted in July 2016.
You know, we use the word “hero” too often. But this case it’s the only appropriate term. What else could you possibly call a young rebel like this striking blows against oppression one awkward, arrhythmic dance step at a time? If this happened in the States, we’d still admire the lad. But in a society where he’s facing jail time in some Dark Knight Rises-like pit of hell? Well that’s the very definition of “hero” in my dictionary.
History has a funny way of putting exactly the right people at exactly the right place and time to change the course of human events for the better. Jesus. Lincoln. Gandhi. Churchill. J. Robert Oppenheimer. This kid. Sometimes that person is a religious leader. Sometimes a statesman. Sometimes it’s a scientist. And sometimes it’s a teenager in a Husky XL boys polo and powder blue crocs standing up to The Man with the power of his dance moves to a 20-year-old One-Hit Wonder.
When the religious patriarchy eventually falls and dance related freedom reigns throughout the land, we’ll remember that this kid was the one who started the revolution. The Katniss Everdeen who fought the power and changed the world. Hope you live long enough to see it, Dancing Boy.