ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish pop singer and humanitarian Dashni Murad is featured in a new song from British group Sweat that may bring her back onto the music scene after a six year absence.

The song, Director, "follows the story of a female movie director, the challenges she faces navigating through a male-dominated industry, and ultimately her rise to great success," according to a statement from the Dante Trainor, head of the group Sweat.

Sweat is a London-based futuristic pop group mixing electronic dance music and Middle Eastern melodies. Director is their second single.

Morad met Sweat in 2018. "Dashni and I met through a mutual friend at a gig in London and I became a fan of all that she does, and we decided there and then that we should get into the studio together. To work with Dashni on this song was a dream come true for us," Trainor said. "As I know the story relates to her own, and as a result her voice is the perfect weapon to convey the mythic power of the Director as she rises from success to success against adversity."

Morad, 34, is a popular singer, songwriter, onetime TV presenter, humanitarian, and women’s rights advocate. She gained a wide following after hosting a show, Be Control or Without Control, on Kurdish TV in 2005.

She introduced Western elements and melodies into her Kurdish songs. Harassment on social media was a factor in her decision to stop making music. In April, she again became the target of an online harassment claim after she criticized comments by a Kurdish traditional singer who described women as “weak” and “inferior” to men.

"I was honored" to take part in the Director video, Morad told Rudaw English via WhatsApp on Thursday.

"My loyal fans who have been my fans since 2009, they messaged me, they were happy. They are expecting me to come back. And I think the broken heart in me is broken up with music, broken up with TV, broken up with showbiz. Today her heart is no longer broken," she said.

Morad said she is ready to "reconcile with music."

Women in the public eye in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq have long faced blackmail and other threats to abandon political and artistic goals. Often, women who take part in civil society are threatened and shamed for their perceived morality, virtue, and appearance.

Rudaw