Late 19th century French postcards imaging veiled women as ‘Other’ provide just once instance of how the far-ranging history of these divisions circulated via visual culture and tourism. Alternatively, for women who choose to wear the veil in places where the headscarf is outlawed, the hijab may signify active protest and the reclaiming of independence, while for others, it remains a protecting shield from the penetrating indecency of the male gaze.
Princess Hijab’s work touches upon opposing ends of the hijab’s spectrum of symbolism. For French nationalists, the collapse of the hijab with Western values authorized by State-sanctioned advertising spaces frames the actual reducibility of the divide between East and West; alternatively, the implementation of the hijab within the ads and their re-purposing as accessories, speaks to the present-day commodification of the hijab through globalized economies of appearance, thereby undermining the hijab as a sign of resistance to Western culture.