Women who make a difference

   

According to a article in The Guardian Princess Hijab is a street artist that is hard to find in person but her statements spark debates considering feminism and fundamentalism. By day, she wears a white veil symbolizing purity and by night she wears a black veil which is the expression of her fight for a cause.   Usually striking under the protection of darkness using black paint she slaps black Muslim veils on over exposed and over retouched women/ men. She refers to her artwork as "hijabisation". What brought this artist to the surface was a political matter. In 2004 French president Nicolas Sarkozy issued a ban on wearing articles of clothing that refer to religious symbolism such as the hi-jab  the yarmulke and the Sikh turban in public schools and universities or government buildings.Those mostly affected by this ban were vulnerable minorities. The ban against the hi jab was instituted in the name of secularism.

"We cannot accept, in our country, women imprisoned behind a mesh, cut off from society, deprived of all identity", while at the same time in our highly affluent Western World, where never has the pressure to buy a successful identity and spend money maintaining it been greater, depression is ten times more common than in developing countries. We are constantly assaulted with images selling us the latest 'must have' product; in the film the artist notes that the most difficult adverts to get to are "These Images protected by cameras, the ones for luxury goods...Somehow they are even more protected than human beings" - Nicholas Sarkozy 

   

The reasons that women wear a niqab or burqa vary. Yes in some cases the reason why women

wear these garments is because it is imposed by husbands or other males in the family as a way of keeping a female in society oppressed.  There is the reason that a women takes pride on how she grew up by wearing a facial covering, especially where those around her also did, the covering may be part of her identity. In some cultures other cultures it is normal for a women to be naked but I suppose it all depends on how a person is brought up and how they identify themselves.  

I am  not Arabic or Muslim but I believe to take away a women's  right to wear what she prefers is like taking away her voice.  In an interview Princess Hi-jab describes reason to her work ; "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", "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."

Although the Prnicess does not give any information of her own background or there is no proof  if the artist is male or female. For those women in France Princess Hij-jab's  presence was a comforting rebellion against the ban and standing for women to keep their identities.  In today's world no matter what country how we dress is how we would like to be represented onto others.  Influences of how we were brought up to experiences are reflected and projected in how we dress. 

citations 

Article on princess hijab 
More info on the ban
The guardian