Angela Natividad's Live & Uncensored!

07 October 2010

Niqabitches Battle Anti-Burqa Law ... in Hot Pants

Not all French protests come packin' a Molotov cocktail. To protest a law that permits police to fine burqa wearers on France's streets, which passed last month, two mystery girls who call themselves the Niqabitches found a different way to share their discontent.



Sporting niqabs, stilettos and short shorts, the girls - both students, one Muslim - approached the doors of the Ministry of Immigration and National Identity, hoping to run into someone important. In the video, a cop tells them to get lost; but another (female) cop thinks the get-ups are awesome. She asks them if she can take a photo - even though, soon enough, these same officers will be forced to fine actual niqab wearers.

"We were not looking to attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists – each to their own – but rather to question politicians who voted for this law that we consider clearly unconstitutional," they were quoted as saying.

The video was uploaded onto YouTube on October 2nd. It's since enjoyed 28,274 views. The vimeo upload, parked on the 'net September 17, has seen over 249,000.

Follow @niqabitch for developments. It's not clear whether they want to fling themselves further into the headlights of French politics, but the story's raising eyebrows and, at the very least, generating more constructive discussion about the topic. Just seeing the sardonic pleasure of those who encountered the Niqabitches on the street was heartening. It hits you then: the anti-burqa law may have passed, but there are plenty of French citizens who don't want this.

While discussion about the burqa ban seemed like a delicate - even suicidal - topic of conversation before, the subject of two girls in a niqab and hot pants takes the edge off and perhaps puts people at enough ease that they can say what they think without sounding like wooden puppets, measuring syllables. That ain't bad poison - although you don't have to look far to find raging debate, either. (The YouTube and vimeo comments are a treasure trove.)

Elsewhere in Paris, an incognito graffiti artist who calls herself Princess Hijab is defacing métro ads by painting hijabs onto models with an enormous black marker. For her part, she says the cause isn't religious; she just likes the way hijabs isolate and accentuate a person who seeks obscurity, not magnification, in the Western world.

Lest we forget, German lingerie firm Liaison Dangereuse also released an ad suggesting worldly, sexy women can be hidden under burqas, too.

2 comments:

Ex-Chief Alien said...

I find it ironic that they wear short shorts which of course Muslim women would get beaten up in sharia law places even with the head covering. I still think places with Sharia Law the men are gay. But gay in the sense they hate themselves for being gay (see Catholic Priests that molest boys). Has to be the reason.

Angela Natividad said...

Once people have it in their minds that they need to remain on a series of rails to preserve morality, it's hard to de-rail. Like Christians who hate on each other if they don't wear shirts over their bathing suits.

Okay, that's not quite Sharia law, but still - in the mind there's a fixed idea about the dangers of flirting with the limits of modesty. And authorities are freaked about what happens if that line ever gets crossed. I think society men are too, for good reason: it's worse if lines get crossed and nothing happens. Think how many years of conviction - of authority - that undoes.