YouTube couple criticised for 'biggest' gender-reveal on world's tallest building

An influencer couple is facing intense criticism for an over-the-top gender-reveal that saw them light up the tallest building in the world for what they called the “biggest baby gender-reveal ever”.

This week, YouTubers Anas and Asala Marwah, who run the YouTube account Anasala Family, where they have more than 7.7m subscribers, shared a 15-minute video to the platform showing the Burj Khalifa in Dubai lit up to reveal they are having a boy.

In the video, which has been viewed more than 18m times as of Saturday, the couple and their family and friends gather to watch the extravagant light display, which included a 10-second countdown, to find out the gender of their second child.

When the lights on the tallest building turned blue and read: “It’s a boy,” the couple could be seen cheering and celebrating.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for two months now,” Asala says in Arabic in the video prior to the reveal, according to The New York Post.

“We want to do something special but also memorable so that [the] family will look back at it and see what we built and created,” Anas said.

While gender-reveals are not a new phenomenon, the couple’s elaborate version was met with backlash on social media as it came after it was determined that a gender-reveal party was the cause of the El Dorado fire in California, which has burned nearly 14,000 acres and is just 37 per cent contained since it started last weekend.

“This is not the energy to have with what’s happening in California right now,” one person wrote on Twitter.

Another said: “Gender reveals need to make their exit in 2020. #Dubai #GenderReveal.”

“This has got to stop. A gender-reveal party caused a wildfire in California this week. Another in Dubai cost thousands of $ to project announcement on to Burj Khalifa. Gender-reveal parties kick off gender stereotyping of kids before they are even born. #Letkidsbekids,” someone else wrote.

While there has been speculation that the couple paid thousands for the gender announcement, they told the DailyMail: “We didn't pay any amount to any entity to make this happen. Everything being said are rumours.”

The latest gender-reveal controversy comes after the woman recognised as the inventor of gender-reveal parties encouraged people to “stop having these stupid parties” earlier this week.

“Oh my god NO. The fire that evacuated parts of California is from a GENDER-REVEAL PARTY,” Jenna Karvunidis, who runs the blog High Gloss And Sauce on Facebook, wrote. “Stop it. Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid's penis. No one cares but you.”

She added: “It was 116 degrees in Pasadena yesterday and this tool thought it would be smart to light a fire about his kid's d***. Toxic masculinity is men thinking they need to explode something because simply enjoying a baby party is for sissies.”

The Independent has contacted Anas and Asala Marwah for comment.

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California wildfire: Gender reveal party sparks huge blaze forcing hundreds to evacuate