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.
