I was watching an old Mary-Kate and Ashley movie called Billboard Dad on Hulu last month and ran across one dating scene in the movie. The scene depicts a woman wearing a niqab going on a date with the father. This particular scene was showing how horrible it was to date. A five-second clip of various “crazy” women the dad had to put up with. A generic movie scene for any rom-com. The niqabi woman was in the line up of bad and “crazy” dates. It was supposed to be a funny scene but it just felt…odd. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a children’s movie casually toss in a face veiled woman for comical relief. Studio Ghibli’s film The Cat Returns has what I presume are cats representing Saudi Arabia, dressed in a niqab. In this scene, the king orders for entertainment, and a female cat with a bikini top is tied on to a wheel. While her partner throws knives around her. One knife however cuts her top strap, causing the bikini to fall down and exposing her cat boobs. It is a funny scene, one in which the movie Zootopia takes advantage of, however the camera turns to the Saudi Cats. The female is wearing a niqab with her eyes narrow at nudity, while the male Saudi is angry at the nudity.

These two scenes are well over ten years old, I was only three when Billboard Dad came out and seven when The Cat Returns came out. I never saw the Mary-Kate and Ashley film until I was an adult, and I never noticed the Saudi cats when I watched the film in my teens. I have a feeling that many people don’t notice weird scenes like these in their films. Even though some may not notice these scenes, it doesn’t make these scenes any less problematic. Nor does it take away from the films themselves. We could say that the movies are not trying to be openly islamophobic, and that’s true. With B.D. the producers thought a face veiled woman going on a date, would be hilarious because the father couldn’t see her face. How funny!! I can assume that they were not trying to say Muslims going on dates is weird. Yet I’ve seen plenty of movies with these types of dating scenes showing hijabi women in the lineup. So there is an air of islamophobia about showing a fully face veiled woman on a date. I do not think Studio Ghibli was trying to mock the niqab, the niqabi cat looked more annoyed at her husband than at the naked cat. I believe the creators thought who at this cat conference would be most shocked at the sudden nudity of a cat? Most likely the Saudi cats. It did not feel the same way B.D.’s scene did. Which is probably why no one discusses the Studio Ghibli scene at all.

In 2003 Lil’ Kim appeared on the cover of OneWorld magazine wearing a red burqa that covered her face but left her eyes open, the burqa was held off to one side revealing red strips of fabric barely covering her nipples. When asked if perhaps her attire was offensive, Lil’ Kim replied, “Fuck Afghanistan. Let’s do this.” In Paris Fashion week of 2019, Cardi B wore a head to toe blue, green, and white flower print outfit. The outfit included, a headscarf, a jacket with a belt, skirt, gloves, and shoes all topped off with a face cover that covered the entire face. The outfit was composed of the exact same material. Cardi B seemed oblivious with her fashion choice, claiming she couldn’t see, and she probably couldn’t with the material she wore. Lil’ Kim was fully aware that she was sexualizing the face veil representing the ‘other’. The nakedness showed the American “ideal” female, that stripping away the veil freed women. Conservatives were quick to defend Lil’ Kim’s actions saying “this girl is outraging Muslims…” Cardi B did not sexualize the veil, like Lil’ Kim did, her only critique was that while she could walk freely in Paris, France Muslim women can’t walk freely even if they wore the same thing as Cardi B. Tribune points out that according to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2018, the “French law disproportionately harmed the petitioner’s right to manifest their religious beliefs…rather than protecting fully veiled women, could have the opposite effect of confining them to their homes, impeding their access to public services and marginalizing them.” The anger towards the outfit Cardi B wore was not directed at her, but at France’s discriminatory law and those who sat there cheering her on but continue to deny Muslim women the right to dress the exact same way. Cardi did not say why she wore the outfit she did, nor did she address the veil ban issues in France. What Cardi’s statement did was show the hypocrisy of French law. Lil’ Kim on the other hand played into the orientalist trope of unveiling Muslim bodies. Feminist played into the war on Afghanistan by promoting the ideology that Afghanistan should be invaded to help the women, the veil played much into this politics. So, what Lil’ Kim did was show that if we unveil the Muslim woman, her nakedness would be there for the spoils of war.

So we have examples of films, magazines, and real-life using the image of the niqab for a particular agenda. In comedic films, the niqab is used for comic relief. Are all comic relief examples bad? No, in fact, Kim’s Convivence has one of the best examples of positively representing face veiled women. I could nitpick both characters outfits, but the positive representation was there. When one of the customers asked about the face veil, Kim the owner quickly comes to their defense. I also appreciate how the one hijabi character in the series isn’t represented as dumb, oppressed, or anything negative. She is a cleaning lady, but she is also a refugee trying to get on her feet and making friends with the community. While the two niqabis in the one scene do represent a comical reaction, the niqab is not the butt of the joke. This representation is positive or i.e. it is not making fun of the niqab itself. I love this show and you should check it out, it has wonderful representations of various peoples. In these small scenes, the customer is represented as a normal human being, but the show uses the interaction to educate the audience on a particular topic; like the niqab or non-binary individuals.

So far in this post, I haven’t even touched the representation of the face veil in media showing it in a sexual manner. I think I will keep this topic for another post. I want the reader to understand that while the B.D representation was not even remotely problematic like Lil Kim’s photoshoot, it still was wrong. Why? First, if we are assuming this woman is Muslim, most Muslim women will not go on dates wearing the niqab or even on dates in general. In Muslim countries, a woman may wear the niqab to navigate spaces secretly. Some women in Kenya will wear the niqab in public to walk to night clubs or etc., take them off have fun with friends, and put them back on. Others will wear them to work in food stalls and etc. Even in Pakistan women might wear them to go on dates and etc. So in a Muslim context or in a film that is in a majority Muslim land, the niqab is used in this manner. It can be a comic relief because it is apart of the culture, most individuals have an understanding as to why some women choose to navigate their society while wearing the niqab. In the West, however, if a Muslim woman wants to navigate her society in the same way. The niqab does not provide her the ability to “blend” in, i.e. even if she was in a Muslim setting it still makes her stand out. So, a Muslim woman on a date with a non-Muslim man, it would be better if she wasn’t wearing the niqab. In this film, I am just going to assume they assume all face veiled women are Muslim. The film takes for granted that most niqabis are Muslim, it takes for granted the viewers’ own personal basis towards Muslims in general. Muslims view this scene differently from non-Muslims, the woman answered a billboard ad to go on a date with this man. The film represents the niqabi woman as desperate and in need of a man. She is shown as a crazy, desperate, and weird woman who had the nerve to date a “normal” man. In both films, the woman represents the lack of sex appeal, available for the male gaze. (cat gaze?)

I wanted to point out these media references because it is important for people to see that the representation of Muslims isn’t always as “terrorist” or the villain. Instead, the female “oriental” body is used in a comical setting to contrast the main character. In the case of Lil’ Kim her representation of the red burqa and naked body, represented the American stance that they would free the Afghan woman from the oppressive veil and free her by revealing her. This is representation just reeks of old school orientalism and sexism, that I am honestly surprised they got away with the magazine cover. I point out Cardi B because her outfit was posted all over social media. I do not think Cardi B was trying to be problematic nor was she trying to make a statement of any kind. Other films and tv shows represent the Muslim female, Arab Female, or etc. as sexual beings or their cultural dress as “exotic” and sensual. The face veil is only sexy if it is sheer. The “sexy” veil is used today by makeup gurus. The issue is, as always, the face veil is used in various ways but one. It isn’t shown as a normal outfit, something that someone like me would wear on a daily basis. Comical representation is okay with the veil as long as it is done right, like in Kim’s Convivence. The best thing I can say is that soft islamophobia is still islamophobia. One quote from the book The Myth of Equality is a perfect example of what I am trying to get at, “Soft white supremacy is our current reality of racial profiling, mass incarceration of minorities, ad a highly segregated society resulting from federal hosing policies of previous generations – all while we had a black president.” What this means is most prejudices are not open loudmouth Karens screaming at Black people eating ice cream or KKK members holding lynchings. Soft whatever happens every day and goes unnoticed by those who benefit from it. This is where privilege comes into play. Many of the islamophobic information I watched growing up did not register as “wrong”, I was not Muslim nor was I informed on history, politics, or whatever to understand what I was watching or reading. Average white individuals, like myself, mentally skip these scenes because it doesn’t impact us. We are able to see a niqab on a screen for 5 seconds and be like, “okay”, because it doesn’t affect us.