Here’s a question: where to draw the line? The Tunisian singer Najla (also Nagla) lost her Egyptian travel and residency permit on account of the “shocking eroticism” of her videos “Baa” and “Hatlob Edak.” In “Baa” (meaning “nothing”), a female chauffeur/mechanic looks ready to return to a natural state at the drop of a hat, although her costume may pose certain impediments. The music is fairly tolerable, if somewhat Francophone. Well, I think we can agree that it’s pretty provocative.

In Lebanon, the Armenian singer Maria (Nalbandian) did not step over the line in “Betekdeb Alaya,” where a schoolgirl provokes her teacher to the point where he spanks her with a ruler, thus arousing her to intimate contact with him, only to be caught in the act by the head mistress, who turns the ruler on the teacher. The video’s director is Jad Shwery, whose own video “Kaseretly El Sarayah” explores the limits of violence in music as his girlfriend trashes his car. Others whose videos have been directed by Jad Shwery include the Lebanese singer Jana. The theme of the pressures of Catholic school life are revisited on her “Dars Khsousi,” this time projecting a much more positive assessment, yet with plenty of provocative behavior. But Jana has yet to bring out an album, whereas Maria, after two in Arabic, is now a pop star in her native Armenian language.

Nourhanne, whose contribution to Arabic pop is deeper than that of Maria, has continued in the Arabic scene, but it is perhaps her Armenian background at work in the video of “Ta’a Habiby” (from the “Habiby Ta’a” album of 2009), where the statuesque singer has in tow a male model with eternal 5 o’clock shadow. He can never quite attain his desire, which turns out to be a proper look at the words tattooed on her back (“Only God Can Judge Me”). So it was not the singer, but her clever tattoo, which did the provoking.