Taarab has always had room for women performers, but not easily. Mwana Kupona binti Msham wrote taarab poetry in the 19th century, read at weddings but never performed by her. Zuhura Swaleh became one of Mombasa's most celebrated taarab singers in the mid-20th century, navigating a conservative coastal society that didn't always approve of women on stage. Bi Kidude in Zanzibar did the same. Women dominated taarab as an art form, but the space they occupied was contested every step of the way.