Malaysian ad of a Muslim woman showering in hijab is getting hate for all the wrong reasons

Blame it on Islamophobia for turning hijab into the devil.

Sarwat Fatima Sarwat Fatima
मई 05, 2017
Come on people, use your brains and energy to decipher facts rather than aimlessly mocking a faith. Photo Courtesy: YouTube/ MalaysiaViral


Thanks to Islamophobia, anything remotely connected to the faith is potent enough to cause uproar on social media. Especially if it has hijab-clad women in its fold. And in most cases, people don't even pause to verify facts and instead gobble up whatever faff is fed to them.

Recently, Twitter erupted over a Malaysian ad featuring a hijab-clad woman applying shampoo. Wondering why it was such a big deal? Well, the advertisement showed the woman washing her tresses with her hijab on.

Now, there are no points for guessing that such a ridiculous concept met with an insane amount of backlash. Most users went on a rant commenting on the teachings of Islam and dissing women who happily adhere to it. Some derided the shampoo company for creating an ad as ludicrous as this.

However, most people conveniently managed to overlook a tiny, yet crucial detail. And that was: The advertisement they were busy lambasting was a spoof of another 2006 Sunsilk advertisement. Moreover, it was by no means propagating wearing a hijab to the shower.


Come on people, use your brains and energy to decipher facts rather than aimlessly mocking a faith.

According to a report by cilisos.my, the entire two minute video was to create brand awareness for Escarves, a company that manufactures the traditional headgear. And the idea of a Muslim woman putting shampoo on her hijab was just to signify that Escarves' hijabs are really comfortable.

The website also translated the promotional line of the brand into English, so that more people could understand what the ad was really about.

Also read: The case for burqa: Why thousands of women in Austria want to wear a face veil?

"Our headscarves are as comfy as how your hair would feel after shampooing. That was what we were trying to deliver in the video," it stated.
Unfortunately, very few people managed to see sense, while the rest went on a ridiculing spree. The manufactures of the product were left surprised when they saw the reactions on Twitter.

"They didn't understand the whole story. People are always searching for bad things instead of good messages we want to deliver," the website quoted the representative of the company as saying.

Some Twitterati even went onto label the makers of the advertisement as fanatics, who were forcing women to wear hijabs. However, they took it in their stride and cleared the air, much to the chagrin of venom-spewing haters.

Also read: Billboard featuring hijab-clad girls in Australia taken down after backlash

 

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