An example of Princess Hijab's work.

Princess Hijab is the mysterious Paris graffiti artist who defaces pictures of scantily clad models in street advertisements, covering their faces with veils and headscarves. The artist calls the process “hijabizing.” In a country that has banned traditional Muslim face coverings, the work has gotten plenty of attention, and people have wondered about the true nature of the protest. Angelique Chrisafis of the Guardian recently met with the artist, who apparently is not female, and tried to get to the bottom of it all. An excerpt from the article:

“Princess Hijab is deliberately cool and detached, but the one issue that really shakes her – and perhaps reveals a little of her true identity – is the place of minorities in France. Beyond the arguments about whether Muslim women should cover their heads, Sarkozy’s new ministry of ‘immigration and national identity’ and his national debate on what it means to be French has stigmatised the already discriminated and ghettoised young people of third- and fourth-generation immigrant descent. France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, but the prevailing anti-immigrant discourse, and what many view as a pointless burqa ban, has increased the feelings of marginalisation felt by young Muslims and minorities.

Princess Hijab sees herself as part of a new ‘graffiti of minorities’ reclaiming the streets. ‘If it was only about the burqa ban, my work wouldn’t have a resonance for very long. But I think the burqa ban has given a global visibility to the issue of integration in France,’ she says. ‘We definitely can’t keep closing off and putting groups in boxes, always reducing them to the same old questions about religion or urban violence. Education levels are better and we can’t have the old Manichean discourse any more.'”