[Reader-list] Princess Hijab

[gowhar fazli]

Lovely post Sonia,  really enjoyed reading about the art around Hijab ban in France, have been following my own thread on this.  This one is the most comprehensive review i have read thus far.  Thank you.

--- On Sat, 11/13/10, Inder Salim <indersalim at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Inder Salim <indersalim at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Princess Hijab
> To: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Saturday, November 13, 2010, 3:10 PM
> http://media.photobucket.com/image/magritee/girto/magritte-rape.jpg
> 
> http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artwork_Detail.asp?G=&gid=1161&which=&ViewArtistBy=&aid=661456&wid=77723&source=artist&rta=http://www.artnet.com
> 
> above two interesting paintings by Magritte
> 
> thanks Dear for posting the detailed report about
> this artist Princess Hijab's action , a  very
> profound,
> and it not certainly tilted towards the Burka Pasand
> ideology, there
> the women are supposed not to expose even little hair on
> the forehead,
> no naked feet, let alone the hair upon legs and thighs,
> 
> it is a very serious work and critics the  heavily
> tilted bourgeoisie
> culture prevalent there.
> 
> hope to read some  more comments on this by others
> too, which is a
> world wide debate at the moment
> 
> love
> is
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 10:03 AM, SJabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >  Cornered ­ Princess Hijab, Paris's elusive graffiti
> artist
> > Princess Hijab daubs Muslim veils on half-naked
> fashion ads on the metro.
> > Why does she do it? Is she a religious fundamentalist?
> And is she really a
> > woman? Angelique Chrisafis meets the elusive street
> artist
> >
> > Angelique Chrisafis
> > The Guardian,     Thursday 11 November 2010
> >
> > Just after dawn at Havre- Caumartin metro station,
> Paris's first commuters
> > are stepping on and off half-empty trains. Then, at
> the end of the platform,
> > a figure in black appears, head bowed and feet tapping
> with nerves.
> >
> > Princess Hijab is Paris's most elusive street artist.
> Striking at night with
> > dripping black paint she slaps black Muslim veils on
> the half-naked
> > airbrushed women ­ and men ­ of the metro's fashion
> adverts. She calls it
> > "hijabisation". Her guerrilla niqab art has been
> exhibited from New York to
> > Vienna, sparking debates about feminism and
> fundamentalism ­ yet her
> > identity remains a mystery.
> >
> > In secular republican France, there can hardly be a
> more potent visual gag
> > than scrawling graffitied veils on fashion ads. Six
> years after a law banned
> > headscarves and all conspicuous religious symbols from
> state schools,
> > Nicolas Sarkozy's government has banned the niqab from
> public spaces amid a
> > fierce row over women's rights, islamophobia and civil
> liberties. The "burqa
> > ban", approved last month, means that from next year
> it will be illegal for
> > a woman to wear full-face Muslim veils in public, not
> just in government
> > offices or on public transport, but in the streets,
> supermarkets and private
> > businesses. The government says it is a way of
> protecting women's rights and
> > stopping them being forced by men to cover their
> faces.
> >
> > Already this has prompted extreme reactions. One
> female teacher in favour of
> > the ban was last week given a month's suspended jail
> sentence for trying to
> > rip a veil from the face of a 26-year-old Emirati
> tourist in a shop, then
> > slapping, scratching and biting her. On the other side
> of the argument, two
> > French women calling themselves "niqabitch" reproduced
> the classic visual
> > mixed metaphor of walking around central Paris in
> niqabs, black hotpants,
> > bare legs and high heels, posting a film of it online
> in order to highlight
> > the "absurdity" of the ban.
> >
> > But Princess Hijab got there first, and her simple,
> almost childlike acts of
> > sabotage with a black marker pen still manage to be
> the most unsettling,
> > with the widest audience abroad. Yet who is she? A
> French Muslim woman in
> > hijab raging at the system? That would be a rare thing
> on Paris's
> > male-dominated graffiti scene. Is she a religious
> fundamentalist making a
> > point about female flesh? But she likes to leaves a
> witty smattering of
> > buttock cheeks and midriff on display. If she's a
> leftwing feminist making a
> > point about the exploitation of women, it's odd that
> she always flees the
> > scene of her crimes. Is she even Muslim? Her fans like
> to imagine a young
> > rebel outsider from Paris's suburban ghettos
> travelling to the capital to
> > make her mark. But like Paris's greatest street
> artist, Blek le Rat ‹ who
> > inspired Britain's Bansky ‹ she could turn out to be
> a fiftysomething white
> > man who voted for Sarkozy.
> >
> > The Princess winds through the corridors of
> Havre-Caumartin sizing up the
> > advertising posters lining the walls. She has agreed
> to meet as she scours
> > stations for targets for her next "niqab
> intervention". In Spandex tights,
> > shorts and a hoodie, with a long black wig totally
> obscuring her face, one
> > thing is clear; the twentysomething doesn't wear the
> niqab that has become
> > her own signature. She won't say if she's a Muslim. In
> fact, it's more than
> > likely that Princess Hijab isn't even a woman. There's
> a low note in her
> > laughter, a slight broadness to her shoulders. But the
> androgynous figure in
> > black won't confirm a gender. "The real identity
> behind Princess Hijab is of
> > no importance," says the husky voice behind the wig.
> "The imagined self has
> > taken the foreground, and anyway it's an artistic
> choice."
> >
> > "I started doing this when I was 17," she says (I'll
> stick to "she" as the
> > character is female, even if the person behind it is
> perhaps not).
> >
> > "I'd been working on veils, making Spandex outfits
> that enveloped bodies,
> > more classic art than fashion. And I'd been drawing
> veiled women on
> > skate-boards and other graphic pieces, when I felt I
> wanted to confront the
> > outside world. I'd read Naomi Klein's No Logo and it
> inspired me to risk
> > intervening in public places, targeting advertising."
> >
> > The Princess's first graffiti veil was in 2006, the
> "niqabisation" of the
> > album poster of France's most famous female rapper,
> Diam's, who by strange
> > coincidence has now converted to Islam herself. "It's
> intriguing because
> > she's now wearing the veil," the Princess muses.
> Intially she graffitied
> > men, women and children and then would stand around to
> gauge the public's
> > response; now she does hit-and-runs. "I don't care
> about people's reactions.
> > I can see this makes people feel awkward and ill at
> ease, I can understand
> > that, you're on your way home after a tough day and
> suddenly you're
> > confronted with this."
> >
> > With the Paris metro protective of its advertising
> spaces, her work now
> > usually stays up for only 45 minutes to an hour before
> being ripped down by
> > officials. She has become highly selective, doing only
> four or five graffiti
> > "interventions" in Paris a year. But each is carefully
> photographed and has
> > its own afterlife circulating online. The "niqabised"
> range from Dolce &
> > Gabbana men's underwear to risque adverts for Virgin
> bookshops.
> >
> > Why does she do it? "I use veiled women as a
> challenge," she says, quick to
> > add that she believes no one way of dressing is either
> good or bad. She's
> > not defending the rights of any group and no one needs
> her as a
> > spokesperson. "That's paternalistic. If veiled women
> want to make a point,
> > they'd do it themselves. If feminists want to do
> something they're capable
> > of doing it on their own." She later explains by
> email: "The veil has many
> > hidden meanings, it can be as profane as it is sacred,
> consumerist and
> > sanctimonious. From Arabic Gothicism to the condition
> of man. The
> > interpretations are numerous and of course it carries
> great symbolism on
> > race, sexuality and real and imagined geography."
> >
> > Princess Hijab is deliberately cool and detached, but
> the one issue that
> > really shakes her ­ and perhaps reveals a little of
> her true identity ­ is
> > the place of minorities in France. Beyond the
> arguments about whether Muslim
> > women should cover their heads, Sarkozy's new ministry
> of "immigration and
> > national identity" and his national debate on what it
> means to be French has
> > stigmatised the already discriminated and ghettoised
> young people of third-
> > and fourth-generation immigrant descent. France has
> the largest Muslim
> > population in Europe, but the prevailing
> anti-immigrant discourse, and what
> > many view as a pointless burqa ban, has increased the
> feelings of
> > marginalisation felt by young Muslims and minorities.
> >
> > Princess Hijab sees herself as part of a new "graffiti
> of minorities"
> > reclaiming the streets. "If it was only about the
> burqa ban, my work
> > wouldn't have a resonance for very long. But I think
> the burqa ban has given
> > a global visibility to the issue of integration in
> France," she says. "We
> > definitely can't keep closing off and putting groups
> in boxes, always
> > reducing them to the same old questions about religion
> or urban violence.
> > Education levels are better and we can't have the old
> Manichean discourse
> > any more."
> >
> > She adds: "Liberty, equality, fraternity, that's a
> republican principle, but
> > in reality the issue of minorities in French society
> hasn't really evolved
> > in half a century. The outsiders in France are still
> the poor, the Arabs,
> > black and of course, the Roma."
> >
> > The Princess won't say what her own roots are. She
> simply says she sees her
> > work as a kind of "cartography of crime" a mapping out
> of the underbelly of
> > the city where "I bring inside everything that's been
> excreted out."
> >
> > And yet her graffiti is particularly French in its
> anti-consumerism and
> > ad-busting stance. For her, painting a veil on adverts
> works visually
> > because the two are "dogmas that can be questioned".
> She feels young women
> > wearing the hijab who were once stigmatised by French
> institutions are now
> > being targeted for their purchasing power, the
> "perfect customers" in
> > France's increasingly consumerist society.
> >
> > Her next spree will focus on her favourite target
> brand, H&M. After all, its
> > ad campaigns are plastered all over the Paris metro.
> She argues that the
> > brand "democratised" fashion at low prices, women in
> hijab often shop there,
> > and inking out H&M models is the perfect act of
> confrontation: "It's
> > visually very striking because [the brand's] images
> are ideologically very
> > present in the urban landscape."
> >
> > So these blacked-out niqabs seem to represent
> everything but religion. "Am I
> > religious?" she asks, hesitating. "The spiritual
> interests me, but that's
> > personal, I don't think it bears on my work. Religion
> interests me, Muslims
> > interest me and the impact they can have,
> artistically, aesthetically, in
> > the codes that are all around us, particularly in
> fashion," she muses.
> >
> > And with that, the graffiti performance artist
> scuttles off, kit-bag over
> > her shoulder, to change out of her bizarre disguise
> and into her own
> > everyday fashion and wander off above ground into the
> daylight.
> >
> > guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited
> 2010
> > _________________________________________
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> 
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> 
> http://indersalim.livejournal.com
> _________________________________________
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