The street artist known as Princess Hijab is, as she puts it, hijabizing ads in Paris. She's drawing the Islamic head cover onto immodestly dressed models in public advertisements and billboards. Why? It's unclear. She has a manifesto, written in the third person, on her website, but it's oddly-punctuated and generally baffling:"With her spray paint and black marker pen, [Princess Hijab] 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."Fair enough. And anyway, there's something kind of comical about her attempts to impose these stricter Islamic standards of modesty on an industry that usually tries to be as deliberately provocative and titillating as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the controversy surrounding the wearing of Islamic headscarves in French schools had something to do with this as well.
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