Niqab: Award Winning Media Strategy 2007 ?

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Niqab: Award Winning Media Strategy 2007

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This is so contemporary... Ever heard of street marketing? It's based on viral communication: do anything stunning people can remember and put your name on it. Nike does it. So does Islam. Islam? No, fanactics. I mean Fanatikz. Let's be pop.

Let us set the rules of our analysis. We will deliberately ignore the Niqab (1) in countries where it is "tradition": Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. We will only focus on Niqab in Western nations or in secular arab states (sitcom laughs), just like Egypt, also known as :

a-dictatorship-that-everybody-hates-especially-the-Muslim-Brotherhood.

So we will only focus on countries where the Niqab is not in its native environment and where it is a social phenomenon, growing and spreading, like any other trend.

Is it an act of faith? Just for the sake of mere respect, let's say yes. Is it an act of socio-political rebellion? Just for the sake of mere maturity, let's say yes as well. And to satisfy both parties, let's just say it's both.

Back to street marketing. Street marketing is all about the buzz you're able to produce, converting ephemeral events into sustainable media and chit chat. Look at how effective the Niqab is proving to be... Am I not, as we speak, writing an article that will stay here for years and years? Haven't hundreds of journalists written articles? Haven't televisions produced documentaries and animated debates? Haven't magazines all around the world...

You get the picture, the buzz is live and well and deserves an award.

This sheds a completely different light on the things we usually say about Niqab: "poor women, they've been forced into this, they probably get beaten-up and raped at home, they're being manipulated as objects".

This common idea rarely applies to the context we're analyzing here. Under these Niqabs, are learned former university graduates, women who were born in the West or have lived over 10 or 15 years in countries such as the US, Holland, France or the UK. When most of them have become English, French or Dutch citizens with a Middle Eastern origin, some can be 100% WASPS with a grudge, newly converted to Islam.

I believe we must face the fact that, yes, Niqab is indeed about a high and loud socio-political rebellion displayed in Western public space. Religious motivations come third.

What still troubles us is the manipulation of women. For there still remains a form of manipulation and, who knows, psychological forms of intimidation. Hard liner muslim communities abroad are organized around mosks with, very convincing Imams and Sheikhs (clergy men), that --in other contexts-- we would easily call Gurus. For having listened closely to extremist sermons, there is no doubt that women are being given a highly central role in making the rebellion visible and socially provocative. They are considered as messengers.

We got the message.

Again, what it so contemporary about Islamic Political Fanaticism is its ability to play with hypermodern networks to spread out its messages and why not speak about its media strategies. Web, TV, cell phones and now street marketing.

Hmm... Do something stunning people can remember, then put your name on it? That rings a bomb. I mean a bell.

Related media: a 45 seconds video encouraging  dialog around the niqab.

(1) Niqab is a veil that covers the entire face and body