20 yr. old guerilla street artist, princess hijab, "hijab-ises" parisian advertisements

princess hijab definitely puts out some interesting stuff. she lives in paris, is 20, and no one knows who she actually is. her claim to fame is by ‘hijab-ising’ ads around paris since 2006. to do this, she uses spray paint and black markers to cover womens’ faces and bodies in ads as well as pasting her own created posters everywhere she goes.

in her own words:…”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).” (source: princess hijab’s manifesto)

sources such as muslimah media watch praise her because …”she takes the veil/ hijab/ chador, which a number of French citizens believe is incompatible with the main principles of French secularism and would prefer it to remain in the private sphere, and brings it firmly into the public sphere.” despite this praise it is unclear if the Princess is Muslim, a hijabi, or even definitely a woman.

regardless of princess hijab’s true identity or whether or not we agree with her manifesto, it cannot be denied that her works are interesting and do foster the sort of dialogue that mere advertisements alone often cannot.

PRINCESS HIJAB’S WEBSITE HERE.

a hijab ‘contributor’ adding her take to an advertisement.