Arabs on TikTok: Identity Performance & Reclamation in the Digital Sphere

Words by Ayat Al-Muhaisen

My first introduction to TikTok happened in December 2019, when I was welcomed into my aunt’s home in Amman by an assembly of teenage girls in high-waisted jeans and crop tops dancing in total synchrony. I stood awkwardly by the front door as their adolescent figures popped and ~rolled~ to the Cardi-B song that blasted from a cracked iPhone. Never had my 22-year oldness felt so old. 

My cousin Aysha caught me staring and greeted me with a subtle head nod, so as not to disrupt her choreography. When the group of friends broke for a snack I asked my cousin what it was they were doing; “Oh we're TikToking, do you want to make one?” Albeit sweet, I graciously declined my cousin’s offer and mentally checked in with myself - thanking the digital gods that I was of the ‘instagram generation’ because this dancing situation was a bit much. 

Fast forward to March 2020 and I was body rolling my heart away in quarantine. 

I now find myself endlessly scrolling through a TikTok feed that literally feeds me what I want. Within minutes of creating my account, the algorithm had mastered my tastes and aesthetics and curated a never-ending, ever-evolving page of videos to browse through. 

Curating a feed that speaks directly to my own personal affinities, it didn’t take long for TikTok to introduce me to Arab TikTok - a community that totally disrupted my initial perception of the app. Rather than being all about dance, TikTok, like many other social media platforms, is home to a number of niche digital cultures/communities. 

Through authentic portrayals of their hybrid identities, young Arab TikTok creators invite their audiences into the nuances of Arab culture and identity. Take @ginaiscracked, a young American-Palestinian with 217.8k TikTok followers. From belling dancing to a ‘WAP Nancy Ajram’ remix, to showcasing her “fusion dinner” (a cup of noodles with a side of Labaneh - because duh), to turning her Palestinian grandmother into a VSCO girl, Gina’s page is a hilarious take on Arab culture and her hyphenated identity. 

While funny and loud, Gina’s videos are also socio-politically charged commentaries that work to dismantle historically violent narratives of what it means to be Arab in America. By now, we are all familiar with the terrain of a post 9/11 America; the breeding land for the constant demonisation of Arabs and Muslims. Such interrupted trends are rooted in the exposure to years of news coverage, movies, and political rhetoric that portray Arabs and Muslims as menacing outsiders. In creating videos that depict Palestinian joy, humour, and creativity, Gina’s TikTok opens up space for more nuanced depictions of young Arabs to exist online.

Another favourite account of mine is @arabmum.com; a Jordanian-Palestinian-Australian mother-daughter duo. The account is managed by a daughter who is constantly capturing videos of her extremely Arab mom living in Perth, Australia. Followers of @arabmum.com are afforded glimpses into the true natures of Arab mothering; constant food, shouting, laughing and of course, deadly ‘shib-shib’ (slipper) throwing. These short video performances stand out in their ability to so humourlessly capture the intimate, universal messaging of what it means to be the daughter of an Arab mama and vice versa. 

By playing on the media’s widespread aberrant perceptions of Arabs and Muslims, accounts such as @ginasiscracked and @arabmum.com, along with countless others, are literally taking back the very medium through which these violence assumptions about their identities are produced. Most significantly, by following these young creators, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, are able to experience the humour that can be found in wrestling with one’s hyphenated identity. 

Looking back, maybe I should have accepted my younger cousin’s offer to make a TikTok. Maybe TikTok isn’t as shallow as I thought. Maybe there is room for me to find iterations of my own confused identity in this digital space.