Hijabize it….

A piece by Princess Hijab

I can’t believe I only just came across the artist princess hijab the other day, as readers of the blog will be aware that I am a fan of street art, recently posting about Solveig, the Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft and poster boy. However, in case other readers of my blog have not hear of this artist, here is a snap shot of what she’s apparently all about.

According to the bio on the website:

“Princess Hijab, born in 1988, is an unseen character. The young artist behind her wishes to remain anonymous. Since 2006, the Princess, who has begun a movement (Hijabism) based on the subverting of advertisements (Hijabizing) veils faces on billboards using a black marker pen.The black hijab encompasses every existing form of distinction. PH also operates on the Internet by creating animated gifs.
She initiated the hijab_ad collective.”

hijab ad

The muslimahmediawatch blog reports that the first hijab ad (pictured above), “is one many bloggers believe is her self portrait. Quite simply, it’s a poster of an average looking woman in a headscarf (though we can debate her chosen ethnicity), neither smiling nor frowning, with the words “Hijab Ad” written underneath it. A simple, in your face statement which I believe says: “We are here. We exist.””

The Princess Hijab website has a declared manifesto (as all art movements it seems must):

“This is the story of a young woman fighting every day for a noble cause: she wants to “hijabize” advertising. Princess Hijab knows that L’Oréal and Dark&Lovely have been killing her little by little. She feels that the veil is no longer that white. She feels contaminated. When she was a teen, she heard about movements such as Adbuster; but since 9/11, things have changed. She does not subvert images in an American way. Princess Hijab will go on, veiled and alone, forever asserting her physical and mental integrity. By day, she wears a white veil, symbol of purity. By night, her black veil is the expression of her vengeful fight for a cause (custom ad). With her spray paint and black marker pen, she is out to hijabize advertising. Even Kate Moss is targeted. She knows all about visual terrorism! And she will not spare her right of expression for the likes of publicists. Make sure that all advertising can be hijabized “ ‘cause that’s her fight Jihad is her art”. And don’t forget, she acts upon her own free will. She is not involved in any lobby or movement be it political, religious or to do with advertising. In fact, the Princess is an insomniac-punk. She is the leader of an artistic fight, nothing else.”

Much of the talk on the blogosphere and in art and newspapers has been about the controversy surrounding the veil in France. On March 15, 2004, France passed a law banning “symbols or clothes through which students conspicuously display their religious affiliation” in public primary schools, middle schools, and secondary schools. (Wikipedia page) The controversy was seen as this appeared to be targeting muslim women, and seemed unconcerned about the wearing of the crucifix and other christian symbols. A perceived injustice, or a real injustice… the argument rages on.

Sources:

www.princesshijab.org
PH Myspace
Andrew Price. 2009.Hijabizing Paris AdsGood. February 25th 2009.
muslimahmediawatch.org Princess Hijab December 11th 2008.
Sadie. 2008. Guerrilla art: princess hijab. Jezebel: Celebrity, Sex, Fashion, For Women. Friday December 12th 2008.
Twiston-Davies, B. Princess hijab seeks revenge on kate moss. The Times. February 17th 2009.
Winston, D. 2009. What Do Women Want? The Scoop. (USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion). February 20th 2009.