OPINION:
American Eagle is reaching out to the Muslim community and offering up a denim hijab for sale at its online locations.
So much for the American in the Eagle. Apparently, a hijab is now considered traditional American garb?
The company’s nabbed the services of Muslim model Halima Aden to style the head covering and help sell it to America’s youth.
“She caught our attention at 2016’s Miss Minnesota USA, where she competed in a burkini & hijab,” tweeted American Eagle, beneath a fast-moving few-second video of Aden doing a few dance steps in the streets while wearing various outfits all capped by the hijab.
“Wear it your way,” the product details read. “Make it as original as you are.”
Just don’t let ISIS see you. Or disapproving dads who wouldn’t hesitate an honor kill on their too-Westernized daughters.
The advertising campaign didn’t get into all that. But let’s be real. The hijab isn’t exactly a fashion statement. It’s a sign of female enslavement, all in the name of Allah.
That’s not to say women who wear it can’t look pretty, though.
But beware the acid. That’s all I’m sayin.’
Nike’s recently come out with a hijab as well.
“It you have a body, you’re an athlete,” is that company’s tag line about its hijab.
That’s perhaps a bit of a stretch on standards. But it’s a nice slogan — a nice inclusive reach-out to the couch potato crowd. And the Muslims.
The problem, of course, with all this hijab campaigning is that it’s being sold on a deceptive note. The hijab is not exactly a fashion scarf. It’s an item many Muslim women are forced to wear while in the presence of males — ostensibly, to show modesty. But the fact it’s often forced — the fact that the failure to wear it in the presence of males can get a woman lashed, or raped, or otherwise punished, at least in some Muslim communities — should be a red flag about its political and cultural significance. And on the score, it seems odd that American companies targeting a mostly American customer base would feel the need to offer such an item. The companies are either blind to the realities of Islam, or purposely trying to mask its truths. On one hand, it’s just a piece of clothing for sale. On the other, it’s an overall and unsettling seepage of Islamic ideologies into a largely unaware demographic of American population — and for young women looking to the next fashion trend, the hijab, with its anti-freedom, anti-West, anti-equality messages, just ain’t it.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.