Princess Hijab is not the first, nor will she be the last, to explore the visualization of taboos and religious connotations embedded within the veil. Among many examples, Iranian artist Kamran Ashtary explored the taboo of men in veils through a series of photographs juxtaposing men and women in traditional chadors in 2007.
Rather than appropriating the veils as a sign of protest, Tori Egherman described how Ashtary’s images remain anchored to the restricted/contained female body. She writes: “Photographing men in veils is another way to photograph what is not there: the women who are required to veil themselves. Seeing men in veils helps us see the women more clearly. The photographs aim to erase the boundaries between women in veils and us” [13]. Functioning within a dialogic space inhabited by the 2009 Iranian protestors who voluntarily employed the taboo of the veil as disguise to heighten the power of their visual collective, the title of Ashtary’s series, “one hand holds the chador closed,” calls attention to the sitter’s own participation in the dress code, again emphasizing the operative element of choice on the part of the individuals pictured.